Re: Python (was Re: I did not inhale)

On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:59:11 -0400, James Kuyper wrote:

On 8/20/24 02:52, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
...

It is no complain, merely stating an elementary economic fact. If the
price does not reflect the costs, there is no market. No market, no
competition. No competition, no quality.

 
The problem with that theory is that it doesn't line up with facts, at
least, not as I've seen them. Free software is often of comparable or
greater quality than commercial software, partly because a lot more eyes
have examined the code for bugs.

Free software is still subject to the same laws of economics, but it
changes the way the equation is applied.

Proprietary software is built on the concept of “artificial scarcity”: the
cost of making copies of the software is inflated through the threat of
lawsuits for copyright infringement, thereby making it more economical to
keep paying more money to the copyright owners.

Free software doesn’t bother trying to make scarce that which is not
naturally scarce: the software itself is freely copyable, but of course
the skills in developing and maintaining it, and also in adapting it for
different uses, are a different matter. Such a model also works because it
results in better alignment between the customer’s needs and those of the
software developer.

Think of it as the old “give away the razor, sell the razor blades” idea
in a new form.