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Should Enterprise IT Give Back To Open Source?
snydeq writes "InfoWorld reports on the fight over open source 'leeches' — companies that use open source technology but don't give back to the open source community. While some view such organizations as a tragedy of the commons, others view the notion of 'freeloaders' as a relic of open source's Wild West era, when coding was a higher calling and free software a religion. To be sure, increased adoption by mainstream enterprises has played a hand in changing the terms of this debate. Yet, as the biggest consumer of open source software, enterprise IT still gives almost nothing back to the community, critics contend, calling into question the long-term effect corporate culture will have on the evolution of open source — and the long-term effect open source will have on rewiring companies toward collaboration."
Right on!
Screw those leeches! They shouldn't be using our free open source software, they haven't earned the right to use it. It's not free for just anyone you know; only people who contribute to our software should have the right to use it.
gr4ndstanders, the
Bug reports are not appreciated, but ignored. The project contributors all have their own agenda, and will not fix your bug unless:
A. You pay them.
B. The bug affects something on their agenda.
Don't give people the false impression that bug reports on free software carry any kind of weight, or are even appreciated.
> You can never force people to contribute to FOSS.
Yes you can. It's call GPL.
> A good number of Kernel developers are getting paid by Red Hat, IBM, and Novell. Imagine that they are getting paid by companies that sell software and at in the case of IBM hardware.
Do you honestly think that without the GPL companies bother to hire people to contribute to Linux?
> Firefox developers are getting paid by Google search. Yes Firefox makes money from... Advertising!
So what? Who said you can't make FOSS and money at the same time?
> OpenOffice developers are getting paid by Sun because Sun really hated Microsoft.
At the end of the day, people still contributes to FOSS irrespective of the motive. So what's your point here?
> This is why FOSS will never be the only model for software development.
Not yet.
The way I see it is that software is approaching a zero sum game. There's more money to be made in selling services and supports and other ideas around software instead of COTS software like Windows.
I wear a tie. I work with companies that have to make a payroll every 2nd thursday.
Most of the comments in here are by 15 year old boys or 45 year old men who have lost their job and their wife.
GPLv3 was a travesty, it destroyed the credibility of the FSF.
Affero is even worse, it's an attempt to get a party to undertake unconscionable terms.
open source is about eliminating a troll tax on the most common infrastructure, like apache and mysql. You can impose a more "aggressive" license, but you will then lose mindshare.
I was working on a project with 2 other contractors. One of them tried to use the gpl only for his contributions. He was hit with an injunction within 2 days, and is now blacklisted all over town (I won't reveal my town as I don't want to be targeted by the crazies.