[Info-vax] Ada on VMS, was: Re: Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Chris]

On 05/16/18 21:07, Dave Froble wrote:

>
> Well, yes, sort of.
>
> The entire concept of "free open source" is a problem.
>
> TANSTAAFL
>
> Writing code is work. Work is usually something one does for some form
> of compensation. Don't see too many people with a job where they do not
> get paid. (Well, unless you're a prisoner in a Chinese prison.)
>
> Those who buy into the concept of free software have made a mistake. One
> could claim that they were "mislead".
>
> Yes, there is free software that some people have been paid to produce.
> By someone like IBM, in order to sell HW.

In the early days, people wrote code collaboratively out of idealism,
enthusiasm and was often written by those with time on their hands, such
as academics and home hackers. The desire to sidestep expensive
and constraining commercial packages and frustration over restrictive
product licensing. Bell labs unix etc. Democracy at work, in fact.
By open, they meant completely transparent in in terms of many eyes,
to design, code, find bugs and suggest improvements. Now, open
source is big business, with most of the major vendors providing
serious resources and funds to get the job done.

The effect on the world of computing has been revolutionary. Why ?,
because no commercial organisation has the resources to develop the
complex products in use now and in the timescales required. It's
really expensive and time consuming to develop good software. Ok,
some of the early o/s code was pretty bad, but it came of age many
years ago and is a much more disciplined process these days. It's
everywhere, from embedded to mainframe...

Regards,

Chris