🚀 go-pugleaf

composer@world.std.com (Jeff Kellem) writes:

> davidm@consilium.com (David S. Masterson) writes:
>  > Which is all well and good for the *user* of the software, but, in the GPL
>  > world (depending on how you measure return on investment), the well-develo
>  > code gets high use and the *developer* sees no more return from it (althou
>  > the *distributor* might).  Where's the incentive for future development?
> 
> "return" is not necessarily monetary.  One "return" I see is knowledge
> that others are finding value or use in something I've produced.
> There's also the fact that since others are using that code, they're
> seeing my name alongside the software -- another way of making
> "unofficial" contacts.

OK, so perhaps *you* are satisfied just to see your name in lights.
The GPL will work for you.

But most software developers need to pay off loans which they had to take 
to develop their products in the first place, and to pay wages/bills/mortages
*this month* (not in five years' time).  For these people, the only "return"
that matters is monetary.  And they are not being greedy, they just have 
bills to pay.

Where is the incentive for *these* people to use the GPL?
I would like to "give something back" to the world, but my bills come first.

--
Jonathan Egre' = jonathan@mantis.co.uk = jonathan_e@cix.compulink.co.uk
ObOb: The river Ob in Siberia