Wednesday, April 23, 2008

unrealistic of open source software

Open source software/free software are programs those licenses give users the freedom to run the program for any purpose, to study and modify the program, and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified program. GNU is a ideal form of open source software, Stallman has carefully explained all the possible problems and benefits this free software would bring. His manifesto is convincing but idealistic to me. His friendly argument of “many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the people who are best at it, “is what people want to believe in but is not a social fact. Many programmers want to be rewarded for their contribution to the society. As Microsoft Windows owns a significant market share and Microsoft is one of proprietary software proponents, it is really hard to convince people to uninstall the proprietary software which provides security and service. The society nowadays is not ready for open source software to dominate, if so, then all the companies that generate profits through patent would all go bankrupt and people would all lose their jobs. Open source software only works in a world where “nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a eek on required tasks…”

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