OSS favors the big? (from: Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants)
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&entry=3289910357
Rogers Cadenhead makes a few points about commercial software and open source, summarizing with this:
I’m not complaining about that — I heart Linux and make part of my living using open source software — but it illustrates where dollars would be better spent protecting programmers from wolves. Commercial developers stop working when you stop paying them. Open source coders who can’t work for free will be replaced by people who can, if the software meets a need.
Perhaps I’m being obtuse, but if I was told an open source project’s lead developer needed user donations to make a living, I’d be less likely to contribute. The long-term viability of the project would be better with a lead whose financial considerations were less acute.
That last bit is instructive - eventually, Open Source favors the larger (i.e., financially independent) developers and companies. Over time, most small open source projects tend to go commercial or disappear. Just wander through SourceForge sometime and survey the damage.
Update: Mark Bernstein weighs in