Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!ucsd!ucrmath!lulu From: lulu@ucr.edu (david lu) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer Subject: Re: Software Publishing Message-ID: <7383@ucrmath.ucr.edu> Date: 3 Jul 90 06:19:33 GMT References: <1990Jun24.214227.5186@xrtll.uucp> <7357@ucrmath.ucr.edu> <1990Jul2.222212.3202@sj.ate.slb.com> Sender: news@ucrmath.ucr.edu Reply-To: lulu@foxx.UUCP (david lu) Distribution: comp Organization: University of California, Riverside Lines: 41 In article <1990Jul2.222212.3202@sj.ate.slb.com> poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) writes: >Before you read this, make sure you understand these are not necessarily my >opinions. No flames please. > >[text by Richard Stallman about his ideas of free software deleted.] No flames here, either. First, I like to say that what Richard Stallman is doing is very noble. I would like to agree with him very much. However, it is a good idea in theory only, much like that Communism is a good idea in theory. (Free sharing and comradship, after all, is what Communism is supposed to be all about). I think that without compensating the programmers, we will lose a lot of bright people as programmers not because the current programmers will to chose another career with a better pay, but because we'll never attract any more young people into the field to make them "fall in love" with programming. After all, I would conjecture that the rise in the number of computer science majors across the US in the last few years is mostly due to the expected high demand (and pay) for computer programmers. After all, computer programmers are not what our society conceives as a "glamorous" job, unlike, as Stallman used as an example in his paper, musicians. (At least to the average young person). Of course, I could be wrong --- just like Communism may still prevail over Captalism. But that's not likely to happen within the next few decades. This is going to sound pessimistic, but admit it, us humans (especially the Western culture) are just too selfish. BTW, what is your opinion on the appropriateness of this subject in comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer? It's not really a programming topic, yet it applies to programmers in general. Is there a more appropriate newsgroup for this kinds of dicussion? (C) Copyright 1990 by David Lu (:-) -- ---==lulu@ucrmath==--- just another bewildered college undergraduate. David T Lu, Amateur Thinker: lulu@ucrmath.ucr.edu, {ucsd, uci}!ucrmath!lulu "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." - Geoffrey James, _The Tao of Programming_