Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Whose voice would do?

Author:Ken MacLeod
Posted:8/28/2000; 6:40:19 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 8/28/2000
Msg #:20417 (In response to 20400)
Prev/Next:20416 / 20418

I said it's time for balance. We've acknowledged open source. Now let's get them to acknowledge that there are hard-working commercial developers who aren't ripping people off or filing insidious patents, or monopolizing anything.

I don't know how you'd go about finding out, but I doubt you'll find any large percentage of open source advocates who are against commercial developers (even among those who use GPL).

The vast majority of GPL users are not against commercial developers, even those who use or might even extend their code.

If one takes Microsoft as an example, you'll find that just as many Mac, Amiga, or BeOS users are "against" Microsoft as open source users are "against" Microsoft. It's the "big bad company" syndrom, not having anything to do with commercial development.

So, when you're talking about commercial developers, or even commercial use of open source software, I suspect you'll find that the majority of open source leaders are willing to speak positively about that.

On the other hand, if you're talking about the GPL, specifically, somehow harming commercial developers or society in general, I doubt you'll find many people who believe that.

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