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Difference between revisions of "FAQ"
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Change sequence to have questions on economics of free software together
Sahilister (talk | contribs) m (→What kind of an economic model does an entrepreneur look at when he starts out with free software?: update the answer to look more consistent to a FAQ) |
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Being a free software developer doesn't mean you can't charge a customer for our efforts. If there is a demand and if you are building a software to fill it, you can ask money for development. The proprietary business model is based on squeezing maximum profit from a product. I must say, if the focus is on profit, the free software model won't be able to provide as much as the proprietary model but that doesn't mean we won't get enough for our needs. There is always a moral/social contract element involved (intentional or non-intentional) in free software development. | Being a free software developer doesn't mean you can't charge a customer for our efforts. If there is a demand and if you are building a software to fill it, you can ask money for development. The proprietary business model is based on squeezing maximum profit from a product. I must say, if the focus is on profit, the free software model won't be able to provide as much as the proprietary model but that doesn't mean we won't get enough for our needs. There is always a moral/social contract element involved (intentional or non-intentional) in free software development. | ||
==What kind of an economic model does an entrepreneur look at when he starts out with free software? == | ==What kind of an economic model does an entrepreneur look at when he starts out with free software? == | ||
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“I want to ask you why that question is worth asking. First there are many people who don't have to make money. Importantly even if a person has to make a living, he doesn't have to make a living from everything he does. Lots of people develop free software in their free time and there are people who have to make a living, and they do make a living. To jump from, this person is not rich and therefore has to work, to, this person can't write free software because he is not paid to write it, is an error. There are over a million contributors to free software, a substantial fraction is getting paid and a majority are volunteers. I suspect the reason people bring up this question of economics as a secondary detail is because they are laboring under the misconception that the free software community is impossible, unless the developers are getting paid.” | “I want to ask you why that question is worth asking. First there are many people who don't have to make money. Importantly even if a person has to make a living, he doesn't have to make a living from everything he does. Lots of people develop free software in their free time and there are people who have to make a living, and they do make a living. To jump from, this person is not rich and therefore has to work, to, this person can't write free software because he is not paid to write it, is an error. There are over a million contributors to free software, a substantial fraction is getting paid and a majority are volunteers. I suspect the reason people bring up this question of economics as a secondary detail is because they are laboring under the misconception that the free software community is impossible, unless the developers are getting paid.” | ||
==How do I start contributing to FOSS?== | |||
Start using FOSS, Share/Blog what you found out (it works out of the box, you needed to tweak something to get it working...), Help others in mailing list, forums..., Write documentation, Request for features, Submit bugs, Try fixing some bugs ar adding new features... [[DummyGuideToContributing|Here]] is a detailed guide. | |||
==Why contribute to Free Software?== | ==Why contribute to Free Software?== | ||