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

Real benefits of free software

Author:Aaron Swartz
Posted:8/23/2000; 6:39:26 PM
Topic:Next survey: Are you an open source developer?
Msg #:20038 (In response to 20034)
Prev/Next:20037 / 20039

You may want to read up on Stallman's story and history before you continue to do harm in this way.

I have and I agree with him. I do not intend to do harm, I intend to help. People can and have made money off of free software, open source code does not mean the destruction of all profit. It is similar to what's going on with Napster -- just because the music is free doesn't mean that the artists can't make money.

Software is different than many other things. Software is a tool that one uses to get work done. One can't get work done if they don't have the freedom to access and modify the code.

Look at Linux. It was released under the GPL, but many continue to add to it and get paid for their work. (Many of them work at Red Hat.) I have friends over at ArsDigita, who as a commercial company, developed quite a bit of software (at no small cost) and has released all of it under the GPL. They are a commercial company if I ever saw one, and they employ many programmers who make their living writing software. But their software is free, and the programmers are happier because of it.

It's not impossible to make money off of free software. In fact, people routinely do it.

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