On 14/10/06, Kenneth Gonsalves <lawgon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
1. a view has been expressed that foss and proprietary can co-exist -
yin and yang. This is not so. Good and evil can never co-exist.
Either good must prevail or evil must prevail. Yin and yang or
coexistence can be something like FOSS and OSS or Gnome and Kde. It
is undisputed that the foss method of software development through
openeness, sharing, code re-use, non-duplication of code etc etc is
the best method of software development. So why is this method not
universally used? Only one reason - fear of the proprietary people
stealing the code. In short, the very existence of prop software
tends to stifle and inhibit the growth of a healthy programming
method/environment.
2. So if all code was free and shared, wouldnt a large number of
software companies go out of business? wouldnt the programmers be
starving on the streets? This same argument has been used throughout
history to resist change. When the automobile came, did all the horse
carriage owners, and everyone concerned in the horse drawn transport
industry go out of business? Or did they adapt and change their
business model? When autos were introduced in chennai in around 1980,
did the taxis go out of business? Computerisation of banks was
resisted saying that bank employees would lose their jobs. Have they?
or are there more bank jobs now. Sure, most software companies will
have to change their business model or perish. They will change and
be better for the change.