[കേ.ശാ.സാ.പ] Re: FS Service

I think the problem is that you are convinced that there cannot be
anything produced unless there is a viable business model. I think you
need to keep that aside first. Free Software is being generated even
today twenty three years after Stallman started the GNU project. If
you look at the total quantity of software produced, I am pretty sure
that you will find that the contribution from businesses is not large.
Many of them entered the field only after Free Software had become
rather powerful and popular. I am sure that Free Software could have
developed even without their support. Writing software of the kind we
use daily (not the kind mostly being done in our IT companies) is
creative work and many people do enjoy doing that -- like painting or
music. They don't do it because they think they can sell it. Now to
answer some of your specific questions:

On 04/05/07, deepak p <deepakp7_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> if you want to oppose the current IT model and say that Smart City is bad
> because it brings companies that make proprietary software, and popularise
> free software using such arguments, there are some questions that you need
> to answer. these questions are more relevant in the light of something that
> arun pointed out, i.e., "Free Software exists because many feel that
> prprietary software is unethical". as long as we are sure that ethics cannot
> be cooked and eaten to sustain our lives, the following questions gain
> priminence..

Most of the companies that would come here would be doing some kind of
BPO work or medical/legal/.... transcription or tailoring some
software for some companies .... Yes, they do provide employment and
good salaries. But they kill the creativity of our youth (remember,
some of our best brains are in the IT industry now) as they are
essentially doing a donkey's work for their masters. I have heard a
few IT employees complain that they are fed up and want to quit.
Though the money is important, it is certainly not everything. Yes,
ethics cannot be cooked and eaten. Really? I think people are doing
that, because we find less and less of ethics around us. Where has all
that disappeared?

> 1. If the current IT industry is bad (and free software is good), why isnt
> there a whole fleet of companies that build free software? - There are still
> only a handful of companies that build free software, and hence, why is it
> that free software companies aren't becoming popular?

Because, till now, proprietary software provides more money to their
creators than Free Software. They are not concerned about "stupid"
things like ethics. And proprietary software was controlling all
computer users when Free Software made its entry. It takes time for
change. Today, at least a few leading computer makers (Dell, for
instance) are giving GNU/Linux as the default OS.

> 2. Can I develop free software and earn a living/career out of it.

Yes, you can, provided you develop something entirely new that people
require your help to get started. You could earn money by giving
training and support to users. But you won't become a Bill Gates that
way.

> Turning people into free software advocates (and proprietary software
> haters) would ultimately mean leading their careers to doom

By that if you mean that they will not improve in their career, then
you are mistaken. There are several outstanding programmers in the
Free Software -- Google and Yahoo! If I am not mistaken, Google runs
all their servers on GNU/Linux and Yahoo on Free BSD.

> if there is not
> a viable business model for free software (because they cannot live due to
> it).

As I said earlier, I think you need to forget the stupid idea that
anything can grow only if there is a business model. If a person is
bent on developing software and selling it for making a living, I
guess he cannot licence his software under GPL. But then, that is not
the only way of making a living. Most programmers are not involved in
developing general purpose software.

> Free Software development in Academia is a different thing, they get
> their money for scholarly publishing, and not for releasing software in GPL.

Yes. That is one way in which Free Software gets developed.

> So, a business model is very important. These, I feel, are important
> questions which I dont know for what reason, we are not asking ourselves.

These are questions that have been asked several times and answered
also. We already have companies like RedHat, SuSe, Deeproot and others
involved in doing business using Free Software. And the userbase of
Free Software is still not very huge here. Moreover, companies like
Infosys and others work on several platforms, including GNU/Linux. So
where is the problem?

> The second question was partially answered by Praveen who said that there
> are viable business models for free software. But, it seems still unclear to
> me as to how those companies work (and I still have a feeling that these put
> the money that they earn out of other businesses juz to carve a niche space
> in the free software space).

Companies like RedHat, SuSe and Mandriva work exclusively on Free
Software (FS) -- though not just developing software. They are FS
companies and don't depend on some other business to support their FS
business.

Best

-- 
V. Sasi Kumar
Free Software Foundation of India
Please see: http://swatantryam.blogspot.com/
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