I have contributed to several open source projects. I am also a full time employee of a rather large company. 99% of my work on open source projects has been a direct result of the needs of my company to have a piece of software do something that it currently does not do. I give back to the projects in the hope that others will also contribute, and, in the process, fill some of my company's needs. Guess what? It works! And it's not about stealing anything.
If I want to use commercial software, I must pay with dollars and I'm not guaranteed to get what I paid for, much less additional features or bug fixes I may later need. I have no ability to fix problems make improvements myself.
If I want to use open source software, I use it. If I find a problem, I can fix it myself and contribute the fix, in which case everyone wins,or simply report it and hope someone else fixes it, in which case, I'm no worse off than with commercial software. If I need a feature that isn't there, I can add it myself and contribute the code, in which case everyone wins, or I can make a request to the project developers and hope they add it at some point in the future, and again I'm no worse off than with commercial software.
The only ones who really stand to lose with open source software are those companies who's business model depends on constantly forcing customers to pay for software upgrades and bug fixes. Sound familiar?
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If I want to use commercial software, I must pay with dollars and I'm not guaranteed to get what I paid for, much less additional features or bug fixes I may later need. I have no ability to fix problems make improvements myself.
If I want to use open source software, I use it. If I find a problem, I can fix it myself and contribute the fix, in which case everyone wins,or simply report it and hope someone else fixes it, in which case, I'm no worse off than with commercial software. If I need a feature that isn't there, I can add it myself and contribute the code, in which case everyone wins, or I can make a request to the project developers and hope they add it at some point in the future, and again I'm no worse off than with commercial software.
The only ones who really stand to lose with open source software are those companies who's business model depends on constantly forcing customers to pay for software upgrades and bug fixes. Sound familiar?