Young Programmer, Stop Advocating Free Software

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[GeorgiaFreeper]

And to add insult to injury, the the Indian developers will be using open source tools (linux, java, etc.) to replace him.

[Nataku X]

Writing 101: Whenever you write, actually make a point.

My point was that open source will not hurt businesses or individual programmers' paychecks at all.

Worked with GIMP and OpenOffice for about an year before switching back to Windows. It was like going from horse carriage to a Lexus. The only complaint I have is that Photoshop doesn't appear to provide alpha support as well as GIMP does (as in being able to assign a 8-digit hex value to an individual pixel).

Sure, programmer jobs are threatened, but none of the threat is from Linus...

[Nataku X]

I think they pirate the legit stuff, not the open source stuff. They pirate *everything*, including books. I could find a $20 Indian bootleg textbook for any $100 textbook required in class--they were exactly the same book, page for page

[MineralMan]

"Are you a crack dealer?"

All of the businesses I have ever run have been completely legal. Why the question?

[Mannaggia l'America]

I agree with a lot of what this says. These kiddies are graduating from college and saying "OK, where's my programming job - someone pay me now for what I've been doing for free the last 4+ years".

Well, there are a bunch of other kiddies right behind you who are still doing it for free, so why should I pay you?

The other thing I love is the "well, you can sell support and services" argument.

So what's the incentive to write bug-free, easy to use and well-documented software? If you have something that you are giving away for free and it's, relatively bug-free, easy to use, and well-documented, why would anyone need your support and services?

[muskogee]

Giving stuff away is a good marketing tool for a programmer/marketing expert but not for a programmer. My advice for a young programmer: be a programmer/marketing expert.

[rwfromkansas]

Freeware is needed to keep the software pimps like Micrsoft from jacking up their software prices even further.

This is also why we need warez.

[simply marvelous]

I guess that I see programming for free to be like volunteering. You volunteer your time and effort and realize that you probably won't receive any recognition. However no one is forcing you to volunteer and you can stop whenever you want. You continue to volunteer because you feel like you are making a difference by helping someone else.

[Grit]

This is also why we need warez.

I was under the impression that theft actually increased prices. Hmmm.

[rwfromkansas]

I am sure it does some due to lost profits, but prices were not much lower before warez.

[rwfromkansas]

I also still buy most of my software except for some minor programs here and there.

[chance33_98]

Just some early morning humor.

[blowfish]

Well, this is just the biggest piece of silliness I've seen in a long time.
Clemens Vasters obviously doesn't understand the role of community-developed software in today's computing landscape, and how much of the internet he takes for granted was made possible by community-developed software.
He also fails to notice that people contribute to software projects for other reasons than money. He also fails to notice that these community developed software projects have enabled many businesses to succeed.
There's a lot that Clemens Vasters doesn't seem to understand.

[alex]

Sure, there are so many pinkos out there talking about free software, that it is hard to notice that the most successful free software projects are being done by cooperative efforts of people working for money.

For example, in the embedded tool space situation was nothing but horrible with buggy expensive tools and practically nonexistent support and the market was too small and too fragmented to justify a massive commercial investment by a major player. The same goes to UNIX on x86. First ATT, then Novell and then SCO simply dropped the ball on this viable technology. There were a lot of developers who did want to use UNIX, and who could not justify the price of SUN hardware for the privilege.

Another often-overlooked part is the relative size (it is huge) of contributions made by for-profit companies working on this space (Cygnus, Red Hat, IBM).

[Lael]

So once you get your degree from school, what's the plan?

The REAL Plan, which this whole "Free vs. Closed" yada, yada, yada, EVIL Socialism vs. 'Warm and Fuzzy' Capitalism misses, is pay $2,000 - $5,000 for a platform that isn't being shopped to Third World Pestholes like India, Pakistan [remember the Paki "medical trans-scriptionist" who threatened to put the University of Southern California' medical records on the Web???], or the Phillipenes, or CHINA [where Microsoft trained, for FREE, tens of thousands of Computer Science types...to directly compete with YOU!!!].

Go with that $2-5K platform...and have the luxury of NEVER having to say..."What curry with that!!!

Go Apple!!!

Hint---Apple DOESN 'T Offshore outsource!!!

Wintel does...BIG TIME!!!

[Tribune7]

Right now, your university education is free like in many places in Europe and you have plenty of time to work on your degree without too much financial pressure. Over here in Germany things are a bit extreme in that it is not uncommon that folks spend 6, 8 or even 10 years (!) in school until they finally get their masters degree.

Here's the real moral of the story LOL.

[r9etb]

Who is being hurt here, a consumer who doesn't have to pay hundreds of dollars for software; or a multibillion dollar corporation?

You're basically assuming (which is never a good idea) that the Open Office software is going to be maintained forever, and maintained reliably.....

At some point -- probably long before year 10 -- some fellow is going to wonder why he's working so hard to keep Open Office up-to-date, for free. That is, if he can still afford to pay for his on-line time.

[jimt]

This is also why we need warez.

Stolen property is not cool.

I recently paid $129 to download a set of Excel macros for doing statistical process control, or six sigma stuff.

It was a tremendous bargain. It will save my company more than the $129 the first time it's used.

The cost is not just an amortization of the original programming time. It also is the cost of advertising and promoting, plus some profit for the company selling it. If we use it on more than one machine, we'll gladly pay for it again, as the cost is trivial compared to the benefits.

[Grit]

I am sure it does some due to lost profits, but prices were not much lower before warez.

I would guess, because not a large enough percentage of the population has higher speed access. Let's wait and see what happens.

[RightWhale]

Make the software free, charge for maintenance and training.