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TurboCASH Project Leader Philip Copeman takes issue with Muggie
van Staden that “The new open source community needs less take and
more give. “
In a
recent blog Muggie van Staden appeals to the free loading users
to contribute more to the Open Source movement. His basic thesis is
that taking free software without returning anything is harmful and
threatens “not only to slow momentum, but the viability of the
entire open source model. “
I simply fail to see how any user,
using our software harms us. Users are good for Open Source, not bad. The
more users we get the less threatened we are, not the more
threatened!
At this point, I simply have to quote
Thomas Jefferson who ran the first American patent office. For him,
its purpose was to promulgate inventions, not to protect them. He
hated monopoly and was determined that the patent process shouldn't
serve it.
... no one possesses the less because everyone possesses the
whole of it. He who receives an idea from me receives it without
lessening me, as he who lights his candle at mine receives light
without darkening me.
Sure it is a great idea to encourage
people to contribute to Open Source, we have another saying in Open
Source:
Information is free,
Service is not,
Contributions are priceless.
However, my big departure from Muggie's approach is that I believe that the Open Source industry is still in
its junior years. The future will be dominated by Open Source
software, but we still have a way to go. The biggest barrier we have to acceptance is that end users
still don't get it – Open Source software IS free. They are like
battered wives who have withstood years of abuse from software
licensees. Their limited mindset cannot break free from “Free
means Cheap” or “Whats the marketing catch”.
Trying to solicit contributions form
the users sends them mixed messages, also it is questionable if the
majority of users can in fact contribute. At this early stage
breaking down the prejudices and getting a momentum of users is more
important to the Open Source industry than trying to get
contributions from users that are not even programmers or IT people.
The motivation for contributing to Open
Source projects, is not to help Muggie van Staden or Philip Copeman,
but to help yourself. By getting involved with Open Source Software
and expanding your horizons, a whole new world opens up.
Understanding open source software and how it clicks together will
empower you. The huge business opportunities around each project
reveal themselves to the participants. Leaving yourself out of this
process dooms you to be simply an end user. The country where I live,
South Africa, is really low down on the rung of Open Source success.
Years of battering by the commercial companies have left us to become
a Nation of Installers. We contribute little and consequently we
have a low Open Source penetration. This is a huge loss to us as a
country, but not to the Open Source industry, which forges on
regardless.
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