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Open Source Advocates' Attitudes Toward Profit

Posted by Soulskill on from the in-the-case-of-ethics-v-greenbacks dept.

jfruh writes "Marten Mickos, ex-head of MySQL, was discussing his new open source cloud initiative with the New York Times when he mentioned in passing that 'Some people in open source think it is immoral to make a profit. I don't.' This has set off some predictable hand-wringing within the movement. While some community members are ideologically opposed to profit-making, that attitude isn't held by a majority, or even a plurality."

1 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Re:GNU by Teckla · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Unlike the Paytards I would call them,

    Very mature.

    that believe in licensing software only, no where does the GNU or FSF manifesto declare paying for software is bad.

    With source in hand, anyone could make your software available for free. That makes it really hard to make a reasonable amount of money selling software.

    So, while you might be technically right, you're being intellectually dishonest.