<cite>The goal of open source is much more than just making no-cost software, as Caudill suggests. It's about producing better software through a process of inclusion and rough consensus. The source code is free of charge largely because that is the best way to create a large community around the project, it's not the final goal.</cite>
Still, it's sad to see that many people have narrow minded view of what Open Source represents. A colleague of mine few days ago said, there are lot of software companies doing Java cause NetBeans/Eclipse is free. That's plain wrong, but many people aren't informed enough. And understanding of how licensing works, what are the true benefits, and what is the end effect of using open source. Governments are seeing the benefit, there are numerous Linux based distros (e.g. Pardus, gnuLinEx, Estrella Roja, etc etc..), there are lots of governmental sites/portals/services based on open source software, and what's best is that they are contributing back to the Open Source society.
Authored Comments
<cite>The goal of open source is much more than just making no-cost software, as Caudill suggests. It's about producing better software through a process of inclusion and rough consensus. The source code is free of charge largely because that is the best way to create a large community around the project, it's not the final goal.</cite>
Still, it's sad to see that many people have narrow minded view of what Open Source represents. A colleague of mine few days ago said, there are lot of software companies doing Java cause NetBeans/Eclipse is free. That's plain wrong, but many people aren't informed enough. And understanding of how licensing works, what are the true benefits, and what is the end effect of using open source. Governments are seeing the benefit, there are numerous Linux based distros (e.g. Pardus, gnuLinEx, Estrella Roja, etc etc..), there are lots of governmental sites/portals/services based on open source software, and what's best is that they are contributing back to the Open Source society.