Stephen <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote:
> And this old hippy wants to know what's wrong with "open source"?

I don't know whether this is actually the question you were intending to ask (as
of now there wasn't any mention of anything being wrong with open source, just
with shareware) - but I as a professional software developer could make some
points.

Most importantly, the "aggressive" type of open source, as pushed by the FSF and
their GPL, if it succeeded, would (put a little bit to extreme to emphasize the
point) deprive individuals of their freedom to devote their whole life to
developing software, and share it with others in exchange for pizza, computer
hardware, and a roof above the head.

Sure, the FSF promotes sharing one's software in exchange for... what? Other
free software? Well, I can't eat that, plug my keyboard into it, or take
shelter from the rain in it.

The FSF's "free software" Utopia is based on the assumption that software is
developed as a pastime, or as a "spin-off" of some other occupation. While this
may be commonplace in the academic world, some people would want to opt for a
more drastically software-development-centered lifestyle, and they need to eat.
Anything wrong with shareware here? Don't think so.


But I guess this may get us off-topic a bit...

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