> >I think OSS is simply one term in a larger economic equation. I don't >think any reasonable person could point to any one thing as the cause of >large scale economic change, short of some global catastrophe. > >The effect of hours contributed to OSS projects may be greater than you >think. Consider this small, overly simplified example: >
Perhaps. [snip, snip good example] This assumes that there are OSS projects available for the kind of custom project usually done in house. I don't think this is true in the vast majority of cases. In those places where there is overlap, I think that you may be right. > > The bottom line is that I'm having difficulty coming up with an economic > framework in which giving away one's time to free software projects is a > net positive factor in overall job growth. > I don't believe it is. Then again job growth isn't a goal of OSS. I generally work on OSS projects becuase I enjoy writing code and the types of code I write at work tend to be pretty strait forward and boring. I could try to sell the code I create, but the chances of getting a large user base are small, and pressure increases drastically when you start selling a project. On the other hand, if I give it away its likly that someone will use it and might just get popular. If that happens there might be a chance to make a bit of cash. However, I don't go into a project expecting that. I go into simply because I enjoy doing it. I generally still think of programmers as artisans rather then workers. This tends to color how I think about things like OSS. > > Note that this is quite different from companies' paying developers to > write software that is then given away for free, like Java, Eclipse, > etc. which a somewhat different topic. > ** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and its attachments may contain confidential, proprietary, and/or privileged information which is legally protected from disclosure. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and appropriately delete the material from your computer. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Juglist mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org
