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The loudest zealots are usually the non-coders. To them, I am often tempted to ask: what was your contribution?
Well, we could be tempted to say that our use of your code elevated you from being an invisible codemonkey to being an independent software developer... But we'll be nice and just say that we are your unpaid support and marketing staff.
We need you as much as you need us. Free and Open Source software is a symbiotic community affair. Users get software under very good conditions, developers get recognition (and attached benefits) for their software developments. Take out the non-coders and see if the whole FOSS thing still makes sense or is as big as it is now.
Well, we could be tempted to say that our use of your code elevated you from being an invisible codemonkey to being an independent software developer... But we'll be nice and just say that we are your unpaid support and marketing staff.
We need you as much as you need us. Free and Open Source software is a symbiotic community affair. Users get software under very good conditions, developers get recognition (and attached benefits) for their software developments. Take out the non-coders and see if the whole FOSS thing still makes sense or is as big as it is now.
You are right about the community angle, of course. Coders and non-coders need each other.
Where it grates though, is when the zealots try to cram their licenses/agendas down your throat. Be it the GPL > * camp, BSDL > * camp, etc.




Member since:
2005-07-06
In my "small neck of the woods" I have noticed two type of people:
1) People who go around preaching software politics and religion. All full of energy and grand ideas of how to reinvent software and save the world through some license.
2) People who put their heads down and write code and actually build the software. They pick a license that suites their needs, and generally their ideals, but for the most part it is about the code.
I find it funny when the software politicitian are surprised by the fact that many open source developers don't care much for the politics behind the movement. Like we are traitors, or have abandond the movement, or some other such crap....
I fully concur. The loudest zealots are usually the non-coders. To them, I am often tempted to ask: what was your contribution?