🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DAVIDM.92May18102621@consilium.com> davidm@consilium.com (David S. Masterson) writes:
>>>Are there any examples of someone becoming fameous (within the
>>>software world) for developing free software, and this fame gets them
>>>a good job? Were I a CS undergraduate, I would probably be using this
>>>strategy.
>
>> RMS immediately comes to mind.
>
>He became famous by developing "free" software, but did he get a good job as a
>result?  Looked at another way, is RMS someone who will (one day) have the
>chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor or, like legendary painters, the value
>of his works will only be realized after his death?

RMS is doing just fine.  He's become world famous, is head of a very
influential organization, won a $250K "genius" grant from the MacArthur
Foundation, and has all the toys he can handle to play with.  He's doing
exactly what he wants to be doing, and he's certainly not starving like
the legendary painters you speak of.

Mike Tiemann, developer of C++, is the president of a very successful
business.  A number of other well-known free software providers are
successful consultants.

Free software in this sense represents a conceptual shift in what we
consider the job of the programmer to be.  Rather than providing a product
that is then manufactured and sold, the free software purveyor instead
provides a service.  What is sold is not the software but the service of
solving people's problems.  The natural business of a person in this end
of things is as a consultant, either independent or as part of a business
that provides software support.



--
Joe Buck	jbuck@ohm.berkeley.edu