Open Source Philosophy
I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine and he came up with an interesting point.
His contention is that open source software is ruining the software industry. He is a professional 'software engineer' btw.
The logic is along the lines that if people write and distribute software for free it devalues the paid for products. After all who would pay for something that they can get for free? Those who graduate university expect to be able to enter an industry where they will be paid a reasonable wage. If there are few jobs in the industry then those with the talent are not going to enter them thus a loss of professionals and the ruination of the industry.
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It's my understanding that the majority of open source contributors are professionals. There's probably many many discussions along these lines elsewhere would anyone care to distill the general opinions and arguments regarding this? I'm not having any luck guessing google search terms.
His contention is that open source software is ruining the software industry. He is a professional 'software engineer' btw.
The logic is along the lines that if people write and distribute software for free it devalues the paid for products. After all who would pay for something that they can get for free? Those who graduate university expect to be able to enter an industry where they will be paid a reasonable wage. If there are few jobs in the industry then those with the talent are not going to enter them thus a loss of professionals and the ruination of the industry.
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It's my understanding that the majority of open source contributors are professionals. There's probably many many discussions along these lines elsewhere would anyone care to distill the general opinions and arguments regarding this? I'm not having any luck guessing google search terms.
