FuzzyBlog on open source: "I'm NOT a slave and I don't appreciate being called one. I'm doing it for a lot of different reasons -- and I'm making money at it (my partner and I just became profitable as of last week, largely because Open Source gave us the ability to bid complex projects much more cheaply so we got the work and didn't have to spend hugely on tools)."
There are many valid reasons to do something for free, and I can understand why programmers contribute to open-source projects that keep their costs down, support open protocols, and make new opportunities available to them. Is Dave Winer a slave because UserLand is giving away the Radio Community Server?
True, but the statement that open source programming is "slavery" isn't very flattering to people who willingly participate in it. That makes them (us?) sound like idiots or masochists.
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