You missed the point.
On Apr 15, 2009, at 7:31 PM, Jesse McGrew <[email protected]> wrote: On Apr 15, 10:01 am, Amir Alagic <[email protected]> wrote: Jesse you say that all that matters is whether the app exists... "who cares if anyone is making money from it?" While developers can create free software trust me they can't get free open sourced food, open soruce public transport and other things we need in everyday life. What's your point? Are you worried that open source developers will starve? It seems to me that if they don't have money for the necessities of life, they won't be spending their time writing free software, they'll be doing something else. And that leaves an opportunity open for other developers. On the other hand, if someone *does* have money for the necessities of life and decides to spend his free time writing software, who are you to tell him he can't? Why should he restrain himself from doing that just so you can sell the same software that he was willing to give away for free? Google should care if someone is making money from Android. Without possiblity to earn some money many Android developers will switch to other platforms where they can do what they love and earn some money to pay proprietary food, rent, car, phone... Heh, what makes you think the situation would be any better on another platform? The only platforms where open source software can't compete are the ones with a high barrier of entry. For example, BREW, where the licensing and approval process is so painful and expensive that no one can afford to give their software away for free. The result is a platform that end users are desperate to get away from, because while it's nice for developers looking to make a buck, it's terrible for people who have to *use* the platform and are stuck with a poor selection of expensive software (most of which doesn't even have trial versions). The threat here isn't Google, it's open source. And the existence of open source is a fact of life: for whatever reason, people *are* willing to spend their time writing software to give away, and you can't stop them. All you can do is deal with it. Jesse --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
