You should care because, unless you're the one developing product X, it's possible that it will die for lack of interest. Then you don't even have product X anymore.
This is the attitude in the Linux community that will never see it live up to its full potenetial. If you actually understood what is meant by free in this context, you'd realize that people still need to make money to survive, or they'll move on to doing something that pays them. Unfortunately, many people want the free-as-in-beer side of the community and don't care about the real idealogy behind this whole thing. I don't mind paying for software that I know I will use and appreciate. Not only does that money go to help out the wonderful software writer(s) that main this great app I can use, but it also lets the software to continue being written. This is especially true for games because, being strictly entertainment, there isn't a great *need* just to make your own in your spare time, as you might with some utility software that you use (which is how most of the Linux software gets written). Obviously it doesn't matter how many companies "fail" in Linux, because there is already this wonderful community that doesn't care what happens in the corporate world, and they'll continue using and developing Linux. But on the other hand, don't get upset that you'll be either 1) booting into another operating system to play that supercool game, or 2) waiting another 5-10 years for someone to make a decent clone of it in their spare time. Contrary to the popular belief in the "I'm in high school and won't pay for anything that's Linux because it's supposed to be free" crowd, the people writing that Linux app you love so much need to pay their bills too, and if you don't help them with your dollars, the software will never have the kind of quality-to-time ratio that it could.
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I thought it meant the theoretical "Cats Cradle Nirvana" scenario.
They're discontinuing the Camaro? Wtf is that about?
You should care because, unless you're the one developing product X, it's possible that it will die for lack of interest. Then you don't even have product X anymore.
We're already getting there. Remember Felten's SDMI research?
This is the attitude in the Linux community that will never see it live up to its full potenetial. If you actually understood what is meant by free in this context, you'd realize that people still need to make money to survive, or they'll move on to doing something that pays them. Unfortunately, many people want the free-as-in-beer side of the community and don't care about the real idealogy behind this whole thing. I don't mind paying for software that I know I will use and appreciate. Not only does that money go to help out the wonderful software writer(s) that main this great app I can use, but it also lets the software to continue being written. This is especially true for games because, being strictly entertainment, there isn't a great *need* just to make your own in your spare time, as you might with some utility software that you use (which is how most of the Linux software gets written). Obviously it doesn't matter how many companies "fail" in Linux, because there is already this wonderful community that doesn't care what happens in the corporate world, and they'll continue using and developing Linux. But on the other hand, don't get upset that you'll be either 1) booting into another operating system to play that supercool game, or 2) waiting another 5-10 years for someone to make a decent clone of it in their spare time. Contrary to the popular belief in the "I'm in high school and won't pay for anything that's Linux because it's supposed to be free" crowd, the people writing that Linux app you love so much need to pay their bills too, and if you don't help them with your dollars, the software will never have the kind of quality-to-time ratio that it could.