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On Thu, 20 Jun 2013, Philip Hudson wrote:
On 19 Jun, 2013, at 3:56 pm, Gordon Henderson wrote:With the permission of the original copyright holder:[X] Created a closed-source commercially licensed product from a prior GPLv3 program.I'm glad free software gives me that choice and freedom.Indeed. I'm trying to think of various ways to add 'I earn money from free software' to that list of contributions.
I hate lists and check-boxes - you put too much there that's totally non relevant and missed out some that's very relevant, just because it's not on your horizon. e.g. vi/vim ... So rather than boringly long lists, just narrow it down. Use: Yes/No, Contribute: Yes/No. That about covers it.
However, regarding earning money, I suspect that's the way a lot of it is going, or has to go. A "sysadmin" is for the most part earing money from free software (assuming it's not Win/Mac) as is a webby or "app" developer...
Programmers/Software Engneers on the other hand...What I try to do with some of my software is dual-license it. So my paying customers get their non GPL versions which keeps them happy, and I use that money (well in part) to effectively maintain the GPL licensed part - the wiringPi GPIO library for the Raspberry Pi is one example, but I have several others on the go too. (The SPI and I2C 'helpers' are direct results from commercial Pi projects I've done)
Right now I'm producing a commercial version of my BASIC interpreter for a paying client who wants a non-GPLd version with some extra knobs and bells.. (Who'd have thought ;-) These additions will eventually make their way back to the GPL version though.
What I don't do is put my software on github, or other public repository. I run my own private one and rarely accept patches, etc. from others. Still nothing stopping people forking from my repository and maintaining their own branches though.
It may not be "true" to the "cause" as such, but for some people and projects I don't think they have a choice. Free software doesn't pay the food bill, but looking after it might.
BTW, you missed out that you host our LUG's site!
Yes.... where do I sent the bill again? ;-) Gordon -- Gordons Projects in Devon, UK Projects, Internet Technology, Sysadmin and Training https://projects.drogon.net/ twitter: @drogon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq