[svlug] what did you all think about....

[steffle@wellsfargo.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Mark Kromer [SMTP:markk at itrade.net]
> I've worked on a couple of projects that took a teams of engineers
> years to develop.  We're talking 10-30 engineer years for software
> development alone burning tens of millions of dollars.
> 
  let's look at operating systems. it takes quite a lot of people and quite
a lot of money - just ask bill how much win95 costs. development of
operating system is at least as big project as you are talking here about.

  yet, we have free operating systems (most notably linux).

> What about all those other things that go into developing most systems
> and products.  Who pays the visionaries, domain experts, market
> 
  nobody has to pay visionaries! they run on the fuel of their own visions.
who paid linus?

> researchers and product analysts (the spec has to come from
> somewhere!).  Know many people who do QA for the fun of it?  Many
> 
 I do not know  a many of them personally but there must be an awful lot of
them. the linux OS has much better QA 'department' then MS (regardless of
all MS money).

  your arguments almost seem logical, yet they contradict what actually
happens. therefore there must be something wrong with them.

> two developing structured data interfaces to all the major travel
> reservation systems?  You couldn't pay me enough to do that again!
> 
  yes, this is a valid point - not everything is interesting enough...

> get rid of my Win95 machine, but I need my TurboTax and EMedia Guitar
> Method and Tomb Raider and Power Japaneese all those other apps I've
> happily paid money for.
> 
  it takes time. there are some finance packages, some music/sound programs
even some games. of course the situation is best in area of development
tools but you need development tools first, don't you?

> Don't get me wrong, I like the Open Source concept and the outstanding
> achievement that Linux represents, and I hope to be able to make
> contributions myself someday, but I believe that the future of Linux
> lies in encourageing rather than discouraging commercial development.
> 
  nobody discourages commercial development. open software people just say
that you have to take open software into account and that approach to
software should be different. as I understand it it is more like parallel
branch to commercial development.

	erik

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