CompuServe Thread

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#130356From: John FoustJun 19, 1988 12:59 AM
So who's the other famous personality who thinks this way? 🙂 I think I qualified my statement to some degree. I think it's wrong to encourage people to give up their work. Making software requires valuable skills. Yes, some people do it for the sheer joy of coding, but that's a separate issue. Yes, I think there is such a thing as goodwill. It can be done benevolently – but encouraging someone to give up all their work, telling them software is the "property of all", that stuff turns my stomach. I'm against Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation, if that keeps it succinct. Giving up a weekend to the local MS chapter is a luxury, not a requirement, because you work for a living and can decide what to do with your time and money. Running around and telling people to give up *all* the fruits of their labor to the MS is not reasonable, however.
#130362From: John DraperJun 19, 1988 1:11 AM
John, That's better. I remember seeing something like that in the original posting you made, but it seemed a small part of it. I guess when it comes to people encouraging you to put your work out for nothing, it seems to me that it is in the same category as those who go around touting their reigion, whether door to door or otherwise. Advertising is the same thing. If a person succumbs to such things, yet feels that he has been pressured into something he doesn't really want, it really is his own fault. I know I have made recommendations both ways after seeing a piece of software, and have told just as many people to go the freely distributable route, the shareware route, and commercial, depending on the quality of the product. Some have followed my advice, some haven't, but at no time did I ever spend a lot of time trying to convince them I was right. -larry
#130362From: John DraperJun 19, 1988 1:11 AM
John, That's better. I remember seeing something like that in the original posting you made, but it seemed a small part of it. I guess when it comes to people encouraging you to put your work out for nothing, it seems to me that it is in the same category as those who go around touting their reigion, whether door to door or otherwise. Advertising is the same thing. If a person succumbs to such things, yet feels that he has been pressured into something he doesn't really want, it really is his own fault. I know I have made recommendations both ways after seeing a piece of software, and have told just as many people to go the freely distributable route, the shareware route, and commercial, depending on the quality of the product. Some have followed my advice, some haven't, but at no time did I ever spend a lot of time trying to convince them I was right. -larry