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kibalast Wednesday at 10:09 PM1 replyview on HN

Proprietary companies always have a license to print money.

People who do open source don't usually do it for the money or have the expectation of just making a living from it, never mind making a lot of money. They don't even charge a nominal price for their software. So you have a mismatch between funding and enthusiasm.


Replies

bityardlast Wednesday at 10:35 PM

Yes. Too many people in this community seem to be believe that Open Source is a marketing tool and somehow even more bizarrely, a business model. And then pretend to be disappointed when they find out that it is a poor fit for both and that people and businesses aren't tripping over each other to throw money at them.

Open source is a vehicle for giving the world something neat and useful, with no other obligations implied. (Other than perhaps the continuation of said freedom for downstream users, a la GPL.)