the value of software does not reside in the source code

[Marvin Bellamy]

In-line comments...

DCT Jared Smith wrote:

>Marvin,
>
>In my original response to your words, I clearly and unadversarially
>identified your approach as adversarial. Then I said that your 
>responses were perfectly valid within the adversarial approach. 
>
>Then I offered another context within which you could consider open 
>sourcing your software. 
>
That's my misread.  I agree with some uses of open source.  I'm working 
on a game that I'd like to put out on the internet.  All of my Java code 
will be open when it's done.  I don't want to be taken as anti-OS.  I 
didn't go to college to learn to program.  My entire education was 
solely based on freeware and open source products.  I would be a 
complete hypocrit (sp) to not give at least that much back.

Maybe it's just our client base, but as a small company our much bigger 
clients often try to strong-arm us into deals.  I know for a fact, not 
out of fear or suspicion or anything less, that if we made our products 
open source, we'd get screwed.  I know of some of the clauses some 
clients have tried to have appended to our licenses (bad for us).  And 
being a small company, my boss doesn't have the luxury to risk X% of 
potential customers taking the code and running with it.  We need every 
client we get to survive especially in this market.  It's not greed.  I 
don't own the company, I'll always get my salary so greed isn't an issue 
for me.  When I first started, there were APIs I wanted made public and 
free as in beer, but I can understand why we never have.  But, that's my 
opinion and I can't change it until I see something different from the 
industry.  

>
>I was delighted to hear that Alan Cox would quit Red Hat
>if AOL bought 'em out. That's an inspiration to us wee little
>programmers out here.
>
>-Jared
>
I'm still pissed that they'll buy RH (maybe).  All AOL does is milk 
companies for what they're worth, then run them into the ground.  Five 
years ago, who would have imagined IE would be the superior browser (I 
still use Netscape6 out of spite)?