> > On Wed, 25 July 2001, "David P. Schwartz" wrote:
> > > With all that free (as in speech) code (and coding time) these folks give away, how DO they pay for rent and groceries, anyway?

> Wayne Conrad wrote:
> > The same way most developers always have...  by providing a service to our employer.  Not that many developers work on shrink-wrap software  Most developers work on internal systems which aren't for resale.  And they will need me whether they make me write it from scratch or let me adapt open source tools to the job (this stuff just doesn't assemble itself, luckily for me).

On Fri, 27 July 2001, "David P. Schwartz" wrote:
> So, you're being paid for your programming time...

Correct, I'm being paid for my time.  I'm not selling software.  An easy test of this is to ask my employer to pay me a fixed amount for each piece of functionality that I'm asked to provide, and I'll go home after I get done with it and send him a bill.  If my employer says no, then I'm not being paid for the software I write or configure.  I'm being paid for my time.

  Wayne Conrad