Who Really Cares About Free Software?

Like all things good, there shall also be bad. Take Free Software for instance. It is meant to be just as its namesake says, "Free as in Free Speech" but no, it has now become syndicated speech, sugar-coated or rather melamine-tainted milk powder and shoved into the throats of babes everywhere.

Today's freeness or Open Source (as i prefer to name it) is more of commercial open source if you are not careful. People who comes to me to sing praises and dedication to open source i suspect are not sincere and in the end i am proven correct when they either slipped off the pirate, i mean boat or ridicule the captain and his merrymen.

The search criteria to look out for among such fur coated men are the following remarks they make rather early in the conversation:

1) I have a family to feed

2) I have paid staff to feed

3) I have to repay my old man

4) I need money

5) I need projects that pay money

6) I know this will make money

7) I can become rich, very rich with this

As you can guess, they all seem to have the word 'money' in it. Some are now more sophisticated in their wordings:

a) This business model has the right service offerings the market wants

b) We are the champion of Open Source and fully dedicate to the cause from day one

c) We are responsible for our works and shall professionally ensure your successful implementation

d) We have a global market uptake and now in negotiations with big players

You catch my draft, and i certainly gringed even while mouthing out the above tell-tale signs. I come across more and more combinations, but somehow they just don't feel right in the spirit of Open Source.

To me and to a whole lot of people, Free and Open Source is a religion. It is something you believe and worship in. To the extent that you make sacrifices, either monetarily or momentarily.

Yea, we do eat. I do have a family of 6 including me to feed. I have staff and i often sacrifice them (relinquishing their services). But in all this, i am also very selfish. I care for my free spirit and not been bogged with monetary laced questions. It is my lifestyle. I choose to write freely or not depending on my mood. I have no position to answer to (trying hard), no phone calls to take (hardly pick up my phone if needed) and always ready to hit the open road.

Somehow we do get fed and the end of the day analysis from my 28 years of adulthood ringed with hippy days and necktie meetings, i have finally ended up content that Karma takes care of things no matter how much words you used. And condemns no matter how many billions (USD700 billion to be exact) or bubble economy regulation is there.

It all boils down to the real charity you wished for and you shall deserve it accordingly. Karma do cares about Buddhas, Jesuses and Mother Theresas, and they have an abode much better than many of us rats.