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  From: Alan Kennington <akenning@dog.topology.org>
  To  : linuxsa@bourbon.lynx.net.au
  Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 14:09:01 +0930

Re: 'Free' Software (long) (WAS: Just an introductory comment)

Alex.

Investors will start to put money into free software
as soon as they see facts on the ground.
No amount of "you ain't understood the concept yet" will
get investors to pay a bunch of programmers to write free software.
They want to see a "business plan".
I think that free software nowadays really does require
largesse on someone's behalf.

Look at how many billions a year are made out of
closed proprietary code, and how many billions are
made out of free/open software.
There's a big difference.
No amount of deep meditation on the meanings of the
words "free" and "open" will change financial facts.
Even the big successes at the moment (the free search
engines) are paid for by ads, and their shares are high
because of investor "exuberance", not earnings ratios.

In the old days, software _was_ free and open, as in the
A$3,000,000 computer I used in 1972. A 5-second CPU time
card on this 1 Mips machine cost about A$15.
Obviously optimisation of the code for a week was worth
the effort, just to save a couple of seconds CPU time.

The software was free because it sold the computer.

I think the analogy with art (graphic arts, that is) is good.
Ideally the artist should be free.
In practice, most graphic artists work in commercial art.
It's similar for computer scientists today.
A fraction of them will create great art (i.e. software),
and be much praised, like Larry Wall etc.
The rest will have to slog it out in commercial computer work.

Musicians can make a living too -- but only a tiny
proportion of those who prepare themselves for it.
The rest have to make a living teaching.

Conclusion:
We need less theory and meditation (especially from rms),
and more facts on the ground.
When we see large numbers of companies hiring people to
write free software, then we will know that the theory is correct.

Cheerio,
Alan Kennington.

 

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