On 2/24/06, JTD jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:
If u are implying that swantra (could be freebeer too) software does not foster a healthy economy u are absolutely wrong. The one thing that fosters healthy economies is knowledge and swantra software creates and puts knowledge into the open. It lowers the entry barrier to software and other industries. Closed software raises entry barriers (both knowledge and capital). In a monetary capital starved economy closed software is an absolute curse. The implications of closing access to knowledge is too horrendous to comprehend. India has suffered one closure in the form of caste based society which arbitrarily barred sections of society from acquiring knowledge.
i didnt say open source model of business is a failure. i said, if tomorrow if the bad time comes, there will be some who will stick to their low paying job and their will be others who still in love with open source, but will choose a better paying job. and we need both kind of people. the earlier one will keep the momentum going in the bad times, and some from the later ones will emerge to support open source on financial terms. a successful invention has to be sustainable in technological as well as economical terms, to be adapted by the society as whole. we not just talking about some geeks here.