Without Jobs, Will Open Source Suffer?

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?

Comments

Re:Ridiculous

[andrewd18]

If only I had mod points...

Re:Boredom is worse than poverty

[ciderVisor]

I, personally, would rather spend my time doing something useful than watch television - I don't even own one. I'm not an elitist, it's just that I'd much rather sculpt or write in my journal or read Proust than sit there passively staring at some phosphorescent screen. People don't realize just how much time their TV-watching habit-or, shall I say, addiction-eats up. Four hours of television a day, over the course of a month, adds up to 120 hours. That's five entire days ! Why not spend that time living your own life, instead of watching fictional people live theirs ?