tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post5218793895243316453..comments2024-03-13T12:21:27.016-05:00Comments on The Programmer's Paradox: The Value of CodePaul W. Homerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-90687256524138714482009-10-23T09:15:17.637-05:002009-10-23T09:15:17.637-05:00Hi Al,
Thanks for the comments. :-)
I do find it...Hi Al,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. :-)<br /><br />I do find it interesting, in this day and age, how the "value" of things has changed so much. The digital era, huge populations and a lot more free time have all forced us to rethink the way we try to protect things we think have value.<br /><br />Maybe, at some point in the future we'll only pay "access" fees, not "content" fees. Still, there needs to be someway to reward the successful contributors (or people won't). <br /><br />It should be interesting to see how these things change, but if history is any indication, it will take hundreds of years for it to fully shake out. It's only just starting now.<br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-68252153066409582322009-10-23T07:24:38.542-05:002009-10-23T07:24:38.542-05:00The Free/Open Source movement has indeed made avai...The Free/Open Source movement has indeed made available for free lots of stuff, with varying degrees of technical quality. But there is another trend in our Western societies for "free as a beer", downloading whatever you want without paying it. And this does not concern only software... I had read (I'll try to find back the article) someone giving courses about intellectual property in college/university saying that, with years passing by, people have less and less scruple to download pirated copies of movies/music/software when they want the stuff but do not want to pay. Now, they just take it and do not find anything wrong with it. This has to be taken into account.<br /><br />I fear that, from the user perspective, this is a more important trend than Free/Open Source software. Although the FLOSS “market share” is growing, there are far more people who know how to get a pirated copy of Windows than know about any flavour of Linux.<br /><br />Anyway, the worthlessness of code (more than of other products) is due to the possibility of making an unlimited number of perfect bit-for-bit copies at virtually no cost. Music and movies have the problem of lossy compression, software has not.<br /><br />Another idea : for individuals, software might be seen as worthless, but companies tend to know that the software that they use to run their business HAS some value. Even when they can replace a RDBMS or a JEE server with another, they know it is not some random piece of junk.Alnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-89656214552126828692009-10-16T09:22:02.861-05:002009-10-16T09:22:02.861-05:00Thanks for all of the comments :-)
@xlr8: I'v...Thanks for all of the comments :-)<br /><br />@xlr8: I've always found it amazing how far from perfect things can be, and the public still purchases them. We're definitely living in a age of decreasing quality (and increasing quantity). <br /><br />Still, while perfect may be too perfect, the bar we've set for software is so low that it feels like we just wasting the capacity of our machines to actually improve our lives. <br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-63033001277213889692009-10-15T05:31:00.081-05:002009-10-15T05:31:00.081-05:00Hi, you say OpenSource lowered the value of softwa...Hi, you say OpenSource lowered the value of software, and not willing to pay for software decreased its value.<br />While it is true, I would add something, maybe some of these points you already noticed in other posts.<br /><br />1. Companies can lower their taxes by buying programs, so they can continue to do it. Private people in their homes is different.<br /><br />2. The new trend is buy because stupid and lazy: look at the iPhone store, a lot of apps for 1 dollar or so. They are not willing the effort to find it free, and they are not able to install and configure, for example, p2p programs. The future target of software houses.<br /><br />3. What you said for software is same for books (why write one if everyone download it after), or music, or movies.<br /><br />4. (last and most important) The truth is software today is so full of bugs, it does not worth anything. Did you read any EULA? Which other good in the market is sold "as is"?<br />Remember the manual of Mathematica for Windows 3.11 "please do not use this software to build nuclear plants or aircrafts".<br />No software company wants be held accountable of their software bugs; so, no responsability = no value.<br />It is not the price, it is the responsability of declaring "I have done a good job with this program, so pay me", no one ever dare tell it anymore, they just have big lawyers and contracts.<br /><br />Same for opensource, try to ask it and the first 500 answers in forums are "it is free, instead of whining, get the source and correct it yourself"xlr8noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-18142555712063162652009-10-15T00:49:01.412-05:002009-10-15T00:49:01.412-05:00Great piece. Thanks.Great piece. Thanks.Michael Jankehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00357905802460949707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-22457427220065532032009-10-15T00:43:14.436-05:002009-10-15T00:43:14.436-05:00"You can fool all the people some of the time..."You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." - Abraham LincolnSeitihttp://seiti.eti.brnoreply@blogger.com