[Liverpool] Money

[Richard Smedley]

On 22/07/12 04:00, ROBERT COTTAM wrote:
> And, if they'll do it for nowt, they eliminate the income of those who
> make a living from it.
>
> On 22 July 2012 03:52, ROBERT COTTAM<r.cottam at virgin.net>  wrote:
>> Free software. Why free?

Hello Robert,

English is one of the only languages in the world that doesn't
have separate words for free (gratis, costing no money), and
free (without restriction or ties). Free Software is about the
latter - iow "Free as in Speech", not "Free as in Beer".

(Of course, by removing restrictions on the software. people
are free to charge for it or to give it away, or to do both
- as we, and many other IT outfits, do)

Your statement on income for developers is based, perhaps, upon
a faulty premise. Software is not a physical good, crafted from
expensive raw materials, and sold as a physical commodity.
Certainly the vast majority of software sold is custom written
and installed for companies and government departments, never
seeing a CD, a box, and a shelf at PC World.

Most coders are paid for their time developing and supporting
software - the software is valueless without support and it
is that, not the 1s and 0s, for which buyers pay.

More fundamentally, software is simply an expression, in a
computer language, of a number of algorithms. Hence it is
comparable not with manufactured goods, but with the output
of scientists in other fields. All of whom publish their
results so that others may build upon their work and advance
their field of research.

There's plenty more about this at:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html
such as
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

hth,

  - Richard

PS I've been making much (or most) of my living from
    Free Software since the 1990s.