Open Source Economics

Chris Gehlker said:
> On Jan 23, 2004, at 9:43 AM, Phil Mattison wrote:
>
>> I've been trying to understand the economic rationale behind the open
>> source
>> philosophy, and I think I see an apparent contradiction. From what
>> I've seen
>> so far it seems there are two economic motives for contributing to
>> open source projects. (Ignoring those who do it just for fun.)
>
> The reality is that the best programmers, like the best artists and
> athletes, are going to practice their art regardless of what they get
> paid. Of course they want to be paid fortunes but it doesn't really
> make them more productive.

In fact, if we follow your analogy (which is good). Often times paying
them more or giving them excessive fame actually DEGRADES their
performance. Often times you hear of pro athletes longing to play like
they did back on the "street" or musicians wanting it to be "raw" like
when they first began. I think often times programmers too want that
"rush".

When you program for someone else. You are constrained by THEIR rules and
desires. When write software for yourself you live under YOUR rules. For
many (especially established programmers) this is a very driving force.

I know for me I did a lot of Free Software work early on because I could
"play" with technologies I wasn't allowed to at work. :)

-Derek