🚀 go-pugleaf

fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk (Donal K. Fellows) writes:

>Not that a 1% charge towards supporting unencumbered software is a bad
>thing necessarily, but I just don't exactly understand how much people
>who have a 100% M$ system have benefitted from an open source software
>base.  Sure, they *could* (and I would advise them to) but how are
>they actually benefitting right now in practical terms[*]?  Inquiring
>minds want to know...

I am assuming that Open Source software, even if it comes under the GPL,
will contain lots of parts that are reused in closed-source programs. For
example when I write, as a did, an input table for Japanese Cangjie,
consisting of about 6000 simple data records, M$ developpers who find
Cangjie interesting will just take my table and hide it behind their user
frontends.  No legalese can prevent that.  Published-source software (such
as even Qt, because the legal terms are of secondary importance) always
indirectly contributes to the whole public infrastructure, by providing
usable chunks (such as data tables) and by disclosing knowhow.

Many of the people who work at commercial companies have probably learned
their programming skills and system knowledge from studying Linux.

--
Hartmut Pilch
http://www.a2e.de/phm/