RE: Open Source menu system -- MIDRANGE-L

First of all, I logged off work to write this.  So it's important to me, but
rushed... See below, if ya wanna.  (And if anybody from work is looking in,
(Hi "Guys"!!) I sent that long one posted earlier, last night.)

| -----Original Message-----
| [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Hans Boldt

| jt wrote:
| > You're joking, right Scott?
| >
| >
| > | -----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.
| > |
| > | Or that me providing help to people on RPG400-L is robbing consulting
| > | firms who you might otherwise hire to make your programs work.
| > |
| > | 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.
| > |
| > | 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.
| >
|
| James: What Scott says makes perfect sense. I couldn't have said it
| better myself.
|
| Cheers! Hans

Hans,

I've noticed a pattern on some M-L lists past couple weeks:  When someone
says "perfect sense"..
a)  They use an incredibly marginal definition of "perfect"
b)  And immediately follows with something that makes very little sense

First of all, there was an implication (to some) that this was solely
intended to bypass ERP licenses.

Now, Hans or anybody, correct me on any of the following points if I'm
wrong:
1)  You work for IBM ToroLabs
2)  You get your paycheck by selling software
3)  There is some good and bad in everything that occurs
4)  People that actually believe Open Source is all good have NOT cornered
the market on altruism, idealism, and sharing
5)  Open Source encourages GREEDY companies to get by on least cost (but
sometimes greater TCO, btw)
5a) Open Source has played a large part of steering companies towards
off-shoring, btw
6)  Passion is usually inversely proportional to logic (not always)
7)  If you actually believed THAT strongly in Open Source, Hans, wouldn't
you be in a different line of work??

Which goes to point #0)  The economics of Open Source, like most, basically
comes down to a zero-sum game.  Somebody wins, then somebody loses.  I can't
go through all Scott's contradictions and mis-statements at this time.
Mebbe later (and that'd be assuming, which I don't, that this post won't get
the axe)...

Now, disagreeing about core values in a person's belief-system sure CAN seem
like a personal attack.  Sorry about that.

Cheers!, Hans
jt