Wow
One of my rantings got the attention of the great Don Box. He didn't say anything other than it was interesting. I wonder what he thinks about it.
Well, I've been treking from blog to blog all afternoon, killing some time and seeing what other people rant about. Somehow I found my way to Gnome-girl, easily one of the cutest bloggers out there (besides my GF of course). This then led me to a website handing out nude blogging awards . Gosh, hope none of you make it on there anytime soon [shudders].
Back to open source. I'm going to be flat out honest with you, (a la the Scobelizer's Corporate Blogging Manifesto) in telling you that I only use open source stuff to generate traffic on my website. I created the ASP.NET Forums Configurator as a freebee with source code to illustrate some WinForms techniques, and to advertise for my other products. The forthcoming Intellisense Enabler for Web.Config will also be released under the GPL for the public to improve upon (although we will probably charge for the VS.NET add-in to automate it's use). While I believe thigs like this should be freely available to the public, the ultimate goal is to get the browser to see the other cool (and inexpensive) stuff we do, and buy something.
While I believe in theory to the idea that information should be in the public domain, it's not always practical. There is a universal formula that has been around since before E=mc2. Here it is: time = money. If someone is going to invest a significant amount of time in something, then someone else looking to use that something needs to compensate the individual for their time. What you see right now in the industry are 2 completely opposite ends of the spectrum: Software companies charging too much for their software, and Open Source not charging anything (until you need support, in which case you have to sell your liver on eBay).
Instead of trying to beat Open Source at it's own game, the B0rg (MS) should consider targeting the root of the problem: people have to pay too much for software. Having license-management features like Product Activation are wonderful if they contribute to a reduction in price. This, however, is not the case, and all it does is instill a general discomfort in the consumer, and may actually increase the illegal activity surrounding their product. This is a fundamental tenet of my company's philosophy .
I think I'm done bloggin for the dayl Gonna go get ready for my first day at my new job. 'It will be nice workin with proper villians again*.'
*The first person to correctly guess the movie from which this quote was derived will get a free copy of GenX.NET 2.1 (when it's released), our flagship ADO.NET exporter.