“For years, hardware companies struggled under pressure from the forces of commoditization, as widespread popularity of standardized operating systems forced them into withering competition, the end result of which was a phenomenal reduction in hardware prices. Today, the shoe is on the other foot, as software is commoditized by the appearance of free (as in cost) open-source software. Constructed through the joint effort of thousands of programmers around the world, its low cost serves as a strong challenge to proprietary software companies’ business models.” Read the editorial at ZDNews.
The Commoditization of Software
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
The link to the RS FSF comment galls me
“If we take away the possibility of great wealth, then after a while,
when the people have readjusted their attitudes, they will once again be eager to work in the field
for the joy of accomplishment.”
IMNSO SW or HW developers deserve every penny that their skill can earn. Even the very best SW engineers still earn absolute peanuts compared to sports & hollywood yahoos that makes $M per episode in some cases.
In my opinion SW develoment is mostly not fun at all during the long hard grunt to make anything work. The joy comes in only short bursts that don’t last long enough to justify working for free.
If RS & crew would take the argument to the doctors, lawyers, hollywood, they would be loughed out of town!
Inspite of all this, good SW engineers working on commercial biz apps that are not commoditized can do perfectly fine, theres plenty of SW that cost more the $500 or $50K or whatever that has no problem selling to right customer (ignoring this poxxed economy).
Working on the 500th version of something is bound to return litte reward though.
But I have nothing against SW folks working for free if they want, just don’t expect me to do same for job.
my 2c
Open Source software doesn’t mean that the software developers don’t get paid. This is a stupid myth. Look at the big OSS companies and the developers are heavily funded (in several $Billions) by the likes of IBM, Sun, AOL, HP etc. etc. How much have the likes of M$ ever given to the development community? In a high percentage of instances OSS developers earn MORE not less than proprietry/M$ ones.
In fact, as an OSS Kernel Developer you can get well over £50k for just a years experience in London. A VB/C# job will only get you about £20-£30k for the same experience.