[OGo-Discuss] Some impressions and comments about OGo

[Bart Schouten]

Helge Hess schreef:
> On 10.12.2007, at 23:44, Bart Schouten wrote:
>> Well, suppose we lived in a world where everyone gave everything for 
>> free.
> 
> 
> No interest in that, I already lived in the GDR and experienced what 
> this implies.
> [and no interest in political discussions either, thanks ;-)]

I don't think life in the GDR came anywhere REMOTELY near what I would 
have in mind. Communism of any form known to man is always accomplished 
by force, and uses force and control in order to continuate its 
existance. But suit yourself. I just don't think you can talk about 
responsibility without exploring the notion of voluntarism.

But if Adam is right, and I'm sure he is, and the majority of open 
source developers are developing under commercial sponsoring, then this 
whole train of thought doesn't really apply. Because then we have people 
developing for money that do not need to please any consumer/end user. 
What the end user wins is transparency, open standards and lack of 
manipulation and/or product development that caters for the whims of the 
market rather than real value. What he loses is developers that really 
care (even if it's just part of the job description) for the end user's 
user experience.

I guess talking about any responsibility towards end users becomes a bit 
  empty then.

Bart