On Wednesday 04 April 2001 12:16, you wrote: > On Monday 02 April 2001 10:44, you wrote: > > This got me to thinking. I really like the idea of open source, however, > > it confounds me on it's viability. I think it's really admirable that so > > many programmers donate their time to the whole GNU/FSF movement. I > > cannot believe the effort put into things like KDevelop which is offered > > free to the community. WOW! However, the downside of open source is 1) > > sometimes you get what you pay for, 2) if there isn't a developer > > interested in createing a specific piece of software you'll be > > hard-pressed to find it, 3) if you aren't a developer, open source (i.e. > > having access to code) doesn't mean a lot to you. Ummm, beg to differ. If you are not a developer, having the source is still a good thing. You can hire someone to make something custom that works, for example. You CANNOT do that with a windows program where the source is closed. > > > > So how can a regular (non-sysadmin/non-developer) linux user > > benefit/contribute from open source and peak the interest in generating > > software that is hard to come by? Start a project... set it up on sourceforge and participate in specification and documentation. Always lots of administrative tasks associated with a project that someone has to do... Developers don't like doing them, mostly. >> I was thinking that maybe via group > > sponsorship we could as a Community *pay* to have someone or some group > > build us software that would then be made, code-wise, available to the > > rest of the world. > > It is always nice to have financial support for a project. This does not interfere with free software in the least. The French have two words for free, libre, which is noble like free speech, and gratuit, which means free of charge. Free software is libre, but not necessarily gratuit. > > Maybe this already exists, but it would be cool if Marcia, and I, and > > hopefully a significant amount of others could lobby some developer(s) to > > build us a TurboTax clone. Developers could bid on a price and us users > > could determine whether we could afford to pay for that deveroper's > > efforts and via pay-pal or something divide up the cost evenly between > > sponsors and hopefully generate some quality software? This in effect > > would be a charitable contribution on the part of Marcia, myself, and the > > other sponsors since other folks that didn't sponsor the developer would > > reap the rewards without paying a dime. I think I'd be ok with this > > because I just want my TurboTax for linux. I can't write such an > > application myself - so either I go without it or try to convince someone > > to build it for me. Money would probably be a better method of convincing > > than pleading and groveling and wishing. However, I don't know if the > > rest of the linux community could afford to sponsor developers, or would > > be comfortable paying for software that other people would eventually get > > for free. > > > > Anyway, what do you think? As I say, go to SourceForge and check for similar projects. If none, start one. If you find people interested in such, the project will happen. If y9ou think you could serve for raising and administering funds, or finding the knowledge resources (on tax laws and consequences of such) for the project, fine. If you simply serve as communicator to assure that others who do this work remain in contact and problems are resolved before the project schisms, that too would be useful. You do not have to be a programmer to sponsor a project. Civileme
