Thread: PcLinuxOS - best Linux desktop ever

But how exactly do you suggest Open Source can work this out?

Originally Posted by Mario F.

But how exactly do you suggest Open Source can work this out?

It won't get the chance, even if every programmer in the world expressed a preference for it, as long as copyright laws remain what they are the control is in the hands of investment banks. And they have proven the point here than putting sufficient funds into PR campaigns and lobbyists will keep legislators on their side (divided we fall). That is a much bigger issue than just something to do with software politics.

So it's all theoretical. I'm just pointing out that the only remotely rational defence I've heard of closed source policies is that "it puts bread and butter on me table, without that I'd be out of work!", but that is an excessively pessimistic viewpoint, and those policies could just as easily put you out of work as keep you in it.

Redhat, which some years ago gave $20 million in stock to Linus Torvalds -- and not out of any obligation -- is a pure open source outfit, I believe.

Possibly if programmers en masse refused to do closed source work you would see some serious re-organization going on but quick. Unfortunately, not quick enough to cover a check to check lifestyle which many programmers doubtless lead, and this is probably excessively optimistic, because a "scab" mentality would apply.

Still, this is all something to think about -- after all, you can be happy with the way things are, and so not think about it, right up to the point where you get your pink slip and an offer to move 6000 miles away with a 50% pay cut. Nice! You're a worker, that's all.

But if we curb copyright laws to remove the total idiocy that is software patenting today, you agree that it doesn't matter, right? I mean, Open Source can coexist perfectly with closed source and even compete on those markets where it has the stronger products (like Apache has been doing, or the Linux kernel on the server market).

I think beyond economics it has some very serious and obvious flaws and without the economics and the copyright laws which prop that up, closed source would completely disappear. There's no other reason for it and quite a few for OSS. I could easily imagine a world in which OSS was all there was, and the very idea of doing anything else would just seem stupid and ridiculous.

I am sure there a lots of companies around that aren't simply software companies that would be happy to pay programmers and could care less about keeping the code they use secret...if it were not for a climate that (more or less irrationally) encourages people to believe that would be bad for business, or, as lpaulgib implies, some kind of harebrained leftist scheme.

Pretty sure Apache has plenty of paid employees at this point, like you say. I might be wrong about that though.

Originally Posted by lpaulgib

Hey now... I would venture to say 90% of business owners would not be cool with handing out program code for ........s and giggles. They are in it for the money, and that goes against their business approach. I can't

Only if they are in the software business, which I was suggesting the middle man be eliminated there. Take automotive software for example. Why bother to close source it? Trade secrets? Before electronics, your competitor could buy the product and take it apart top to bottom and study it to their heart's content. What's the difference? This is all BULL.

Esp. considering recent shananigans with Toyota. I believe the government still was never given access to their oh so important source code. Horse manure. Get enough lawyers at the trough here and people will fight to the death over TOTAL IRRELEVANCIES.