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Without Jobs, Will Open Source Suffer?

Posted by kdawson on from the worth-asking dept.

darthcamaro writes in with an interview with Markus Rex, Novell's top Linux exec and the former CTO of the Linux Foundation. While some open source vendors see the current economy as a boon to open source, the interview concludes with Rex's speculation on the contrary possibility. "The other thing is in both Europe and the US the rise of the unemployment rate is something that is rather unprecedented... The open source community to a certain degree is dependent on the willingness of people to contribute. We see no indication that anything might change there, but who knows? People need something to live off." Have you thought about scaling back open source work as the economy continues to contract?

8 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Not Steve by Mr+Z · · Score: 5, Funny

    Heh... was I the only one who misread this as something to do with Steve Jobs? (And subsequently went "Murrrrrh?")

    --
    Program Intellivision!
    1. Re:Not Steve by thered2001 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nope, not the only one. He really should change his name during these times of high unemployment. Maybe 'Jobbes'? Or he can try to get the English word changed...he might just be able to pull that off.

      --

      If your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail.

    2. Re:Not Steve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I think everyone should have to change their name to a unique number. (a 64 bit number should be enough for future expansion at least until we discover FTL.) The number 6 is reserved for Patrick McGoohan, and of courde 666 is for Bill Gates.

    3. Re:Not Steve by russotto · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think everyone should have to change their name to a unique number. (a 64 bit number should be enough for future expansion at least until we discover FTL.) The number 6 is reserved for Patrick McGoohan, and of courde 666 is for Bill Gates.

      McGoohan would refuse 6 (I'm not sure if he'd accept 1, but he'd have to fight with Samuel L. Jackson and Chuck Norris for it), and Dick Cheney is not going to let Gates have 666 without a fight.

      Maybe Gates can get 0x666 and Cheney the decimal version.

  2. Re:Boredom is worse than poverty by Main+MAn · · Score: 3, Funny

    What you mean bored? Go watch some TV. If nothing else there is always some infomercials going on!

  3. Re:Ridiculous by Kozz · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but they might say "Gee, I would normally write a patch to fix Xorg's gonkulator, but dammit, I have to go search for a job instead."

    I'll have you know that the behavior of Xorg's gonkulator is functioning exactly as intended. Marking this entry as RESOLVED: WONTFIX.

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    I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
  4. But Jobs will be back in June by mbone · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read it on Slashdot.

  5. Re:Plus, it's a great resume item by ClosedSource · · Score: 2, Funny

    Most employers aren't interested in seeing your code unless you have little experience.