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→My views on open source
My own personal view on open source is in two different directions. I think there is something to be said for the ability for student developers to gain an incredible amount of experience and knowledge from open source projects and seasoned developers. I've learned a lot from Al MacDonald just in the last few weeks about JavaScript and he's always been willing to help out on IRC anytime he's available. So in one way I think open source gives great opportunities to students for experience and also it gives people a way to mold their favorite open source apps into exactly what they want in an application. What I mean by this is if I decide I want a certain feature in my favorite open source project there's nothing stopping me from implementing it and adding it to the program. given enough time and providing quality code can get you a piece of software that is to some degree customized exactly how you want it.<br/>
I do tend to look at the open source community from the other side as well though. The corporate side. Sometimes I'll sit back and think 'wow all this work thousands of people are doing for free to improve and build on this product is making people for this company richer than astronauts'. So I wonder exactly how it is some of these corporations make the money they do. One of the lectures I attended at this years FSOSS was all about how to make money at open source. Unfortunatly Unfortunately the presentation lacked a lot of details on specifics and exactly how much money is being made at different organizations. If I could put in one request for presentation ideas at next years FSOSS I'd love to see more presentations on how to make money with open source. Judging by the turnout for that presentation I think it's a wildly popular topic with a lot of people actually.<br/> In the end it's all about the experience and the ability to be part of the community and also to be part of the software design process as well. Everyone loves free as a price point too let's not forget about that. Someday if I run my own software company I would like to be able to go open source with my applications as a way to give back to the community.
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