The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Jeff Bauer]

>> Robin wrote:
>> Painters exchange ideas, concepts and criticism freely,
>> but compete for customers.

> Raffael responded:
> Speaking as a painter, I can tell you that many painters 
> do not share ideas and concepts, but are quite secretive 
> about them. In fact, there is a long history of artists 
> keeping their working methods secret from each other, 
> for precisely the same reason that any other set of 
> business competitors do.

And the success of that approach has made painting
a profitable and lucrative career choice, in contrast 
to the thousands of struggling software engineers who 
can't even qualify for an NEA grant. <wink>

If I didn't have my part-time performance art
income to help pay the bills, I could never
afford to support my programming lifestyle.

-Jeff