[CLUE-Tech] GPL loopholes

[Kirk Rafferty]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2003 at 03:36:41PM -0600, Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> One of the things I've heard people say about why THEY use GPL is that 
> they get paid back in more than just money.  Sure, if you have the money 
> you should contribute--otherwise are you really part of the community or 
> just a leech?  But don't forget that even if you don't have money, you 
> can still contribute to the community, either in source code, tutorials, 
> spreading the word, etc.

This is certainly true.  However, nothing beats cold hard cash.  I push
Linux and free/open-source wherever and whenever I can.  But I also open
my wallet when I can.

I don't know what the estimated number of Linux users are, but I'm sure if
every gainfully-employed Linux user shelled out the money for a boxed
set of their favorite distro, or sent a donation to their favorite
foundation or project, it would inject an incredible amount of money that
evangilizing could never do.

At OSCON, during one of the talks on Perl 6, Damian was asked what their
timeline was for a Perl 6 release.  He said that it really depended on
some of the core team of developers being able to find steady work and then
finding the time to work on it.  This amazed me.  There are roughly 10
core members of the Perl team, and some of them need to find jobs.  If our
community really came together, The Perl or Open Source Foundation should
be able to hire them to work on Perl full-time.

Regards,
Kirk