Open Source Economics

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.