in reply to OSS and the Profit Motive
What F/OSS is not seems a lot like what public libraries are not. Libraries from time to time draw fire from booksellers, video stores, etc., with vague assertions that free information by definition must undercut and deny the for-profit movement of media. But studies show again and again that libraries are really great grease in the economic engine, and that avid patrons buy just as much or more from library “competitors”. I don't know of any similar study for F/OSS, but I don't doubt that it would show many ancillary benefits to the entire software industry.
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Meditations