Good and valid questions.
Primarily consumer side. I am a longtime user of Linux, 20+ years. I
prefer and advocate for open source software even when required to use
Windows/Mac. So in general in personal life with friends, family,
acquaintances if the subject is computers or software and the
opportunity is reasonable I will advocate for open source software. Many
times simply as an opportunity to educate people who may not know or be
misinformed.
I am a business man, an employee of a company. My employer is purely a
Windows shop. No development is a part of my day job.
All of my use of development software is personal projects. I have not
released any software. Nothing has reached a point to release. I am
however wanting to release a couple of projects this next year. One I
hope to make money off of the use of and not the sale of. The other is
personal, not business software. I hope to have both in a releasable
state sometime in the next 6 months.
My problem has always been indecision on what I thought would be the
best language for the project. I have always loved Pharo/Smalltalk. But
sometimes I explore other languages. Sometimes because they already have
libraries and bindings that would make the project easier. This is still
a very reasonable possibility. I am not a professional. I only program
in my spare time. Due to my job, sometimes that is very little.
Regardless, the software I hope to get to a releasable stage I do plan
on releasing as MIT. It is the license I prefer and believe in. One need
not program or release software in order to be an advocate.
I have no problem with someone writing closed source software. That is
their personal or business choice. Myself, I have spent way to much
money on software which was closed source and the company disappeared or
changed directions. Then I am stuck with software that has no future.
Jimmie
On 10/02/2017 03:36 PM, Sven Van Caekenberghe wrote:
Jimmie,
Since you started this thread, I have to ask.
You say you are an advocate of open source software. OK. But are you just on
the consumer side or also on the producer side ? In other words, have you
written/published/supported any non-trivial open source software ?
Are you an academic or are you involved in commercial software (i.e. have you
written closed software that you sell or otherwise make money off) ?
Sven
On 2 Oct 2017, at 22:06, Jimmie Houchin <jlhouc...@gmail.com> wrote:
No I have not. I don't tend to go their direction very often. I am an advocate
of open source software but am not a fan of FSF's ethics or political opinions.
And as you say, that want all software to be GPL. Also, I do prefer to hear
third party opinions especially those who have potentially court tested ones.
That is ultimately where we find the true definition and understanding.
Thanks.
Jimmie
On 10/02/2017 02:48 PM, Peter Uhnák wrote:
But of course this is written by FSF, and for them GPL is not just a legal
matter, but an ethical one (and from their perspective GPL being a virus
infecting other code is a good comparison, because they really want to take
over).
