RE: Open Source menu system

Here's why I thought you were joking, Scott, if ya wanna know (and these
comments are NOT related to the misimpression from the original email, which
to some or many DID contain an implication of cheating programmers):

| -----Original Message-----
| [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Scott Klement
| Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 12:25 AM

| Rob,
|
| > Hey, can you help me cheat some programmers out of their wages?  We all
| > know they get paid too much and should be flipping burgers instead.
|
| Saying that open source is cheating programmers out of money is like
| saying that Midrange.com is robbing trade rags.

First of all, interesting choice of words "robbing".  Obviously, that is a
hyperbole.  Nobody's getting robbed.

But there is some small point to be found in the wildest hyperbole, and this
is it:  You're only kidding yourself if you think that little to no trade
rags have lost business due to Midrange.com and all the other listservs.
Just because you can't quantify something very precisely, doesn't mean it
doesn't exist right??

So you say, "well it's so minimal it doesn't really matter".  Perhaps.
That'd be one real debatable point.  To me it's pretty obvious that
publishing/authoring, in general, IS getting "Open Sourced".


| Or that me providing help to people on RPG400-L is robbing consulting
| firms who you might otherwise hire to make your programs work.

I'm stunned.  Is this not one-a the PRIMARY justifications for employees
spending gobs of hours (on their employers dime) On These Lists???  Yes,
this in fact IS the case.  But you use your same hyperbole to make it appear
like it doesn't happen.

| If a programmer wants to write software and give it away because he wants
| to help other people, that's not a bad thing.  Doing things for other
| people out of goodness and a desire to make things better is not a bad
| thing.

It has ramifications which you, and many folks on this list of course,
obviously don't understand.

| I could understand your attitude if we were talking abotu software piracy,
| where people charge for their work and it gets stolen.   But open source?
| These are things that people WANTED to do for no pay.

And these are things that people WANTED to HAVE, for no pay.  And you think
there's nothing wrong with BOTH of these sides of the same coin, Scott?
Well, I know otherwise.  As I intend to demonstrate in reply to Hans, if I
have enough time.  (Just on "lunch/dinner break".