I can see your point even though I don't 100% agree with it. I write most of my code opensource, however I also have been writing software for a living for around 14 years so sometimes we don't have the choice between open and closed source.
We also can't expect only people interested in free software development to use our software. Considering as you just said the software is there for others to use and if they add more features faster then you and don't give you the features you also can't get upset. Also sharing code and sharing knowledge are not always one and the same. The freedom in software also comes the freedom of choice, to either give back or not, that is why a lot of people prefer the BSD thinking over the GPL thinking. BSD = Doesn't care if someone makes money off their code or not, they just want people using their code. They also have the choice to release their code or not. GPL = Doesn't want anyone making money off their code and forces people to recommit their code. This is good because everyone gets the code, bad because you don't have a choice. I am more of a BSD thinker. On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 11:04 AM, Wikus van de Merwe < dupakrop...@googlemail.com> wrote: > What I see you are trying to say is that by keeping the code secret one > gains a temporary advantage over the competition. That might be true. But > this is the way of thinking coming from the proprietary software > philosophy. How much will I loose by making the software free? If this is > your line of thinking, then maybe writing free software is not what you > want to do. > > Because at the core of the free software movement is a believe, that > sharing the code would make the world better. Free software is not here to > make us rich. Is not here to make our software easy to (ab)use by business. > It is here to preserve out freedoms. It represent an ethical view that > sharing knowledge is more important than making money. If you don't agree > with that, then the free software is probably not for you. > > Everyone writing free software should understand that the old business > models of proprietary software based on secrecy doesn't apply here. The > value is in the collaborative effort to improve the shared code. It > shouldn't bother you when somebody else builds on your code and gets ahead > of you in terms of features, because this is what you wanted when you > decided to write the free software! Instead of complaining that this puts > you out of the business you should rather seek for opportunities to > collaborate and write more code together which would be good for the > business too. And if you want to compete, compete in solving new problems > (not the ones that have been already solved, there is no need to duplicate > the works of others) and charge your customers for doing that. > > Now, don't get me wrong. I admit it is not as easy to build a business > around the free software as it is in case of proprietary software. But it > is not impossible or even especially hard. And is much more fun. This is > why we shouldn't give up trying new ways just because they are different to > what we know from the proprietary world. On the rise of cloud platforms I > see future for the AGPL too. > -- -- Regards, Bruce Wade http://ca.linkedin.com/in/brucelwade http://www.wadecybertech.com http://www.warplydesigned.com http://www.fitnessfriendsfinder.com
