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

Re: Nice people with problems and money

Author:Steven Vore
Posted:8/29/2000; 6:11:56 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 8/28/2000
Msg #:20456 (In response to 20448)
Prev/Next:20455 / 20457

Somebody else said you get what you pay for. If you pay zero for some open source, what did you get? Some source code, not the expertese of whoever wrote it. So what is the source worth? Close to zero I'd say, unless you can ask the author questions.

I respectfully disagree.

Is there no value in what one learns from a book checked out from a public library? I'd say there is - the value of time. The time that would have been spent (wasted) researching in the dark.

If your time's worth $100/hour and reading someone else's code saves you 10 hours of research, the value to you is $1000. The value to me may be even more - I may have saved 40 hours of research (maybe I'm a slower researcher than you).

And it doesn't matter if you use (copy) that code directly or use what you've learned from it to write your own. You still saved yourself a bunch of time, which - as we all know - "is money."

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