So, Google should drop free Gmail and free search? People should pay for Windows updates? Ditch Linux entirely? Make people pay to use all web sites? Close up all standards and RFCs and make people pay royalties? Ban all ads? And while we're at it, make all free broadcasts for radio and television also pay-to-use?
There is more than just 1 business model in the industry.
-Renegade
Agree, but I think you're overreacting to what I'm saying.
What I was commenting on was a certain sense of 'entitlement' I see creeping into a lot of discussions about software development. Almost as if there's a feeling that the simple act of creating a piece of software 'deserves' something in return.
This attitude isn't confined to software BTW. I see the same thing in music performance and composition, which is something I'm personally involved in. But in my case, I tend to look at it the same way. (I'm the last person I'll ever claim an exception or privilege for.
)
If I want to write and play the music
I want to play, then I have to accept the fact I may well have to do it on my own tab if other people don't also see a value in it. Not to say I can't do what I want so long as I do
something else for my main source of income. Which is what I do.
Could music be my sole source of income?
Probably...
I say that because it was in the past. But it got to the point where it became too annoying, and required too many compromises to mix business with pleasure. So I worked out a compromise with myself where I no longer insisted my work and my play be one and the same. Which allowed me to become exactly the musician I wanted to be while still covering costs and being able to eat on a fairly regular basis.
And oddly enough, the music itself got better once I re-engineered my career plan.
Since the music market is very small where I live, had I insisted on "making it pay" I probably would have ended up being forced to abandon music sooner or later. Doing it the way I did it allowed me to keep a hand in the game.
So to your point about there being more than one business model, I'll agree with you completely. But all I'm saying is that, within the range of possible business models and revenue strategies, sometimes the most obvious ones get overlooked.
------------------
If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit. There's no use in being a damn fool about it. - W.C.Fields 
But people aren't just choosing not to participate, they are actively campaigning against them. Is that right in the face of a lack of bad actions or proof of bad intent? And if the same people go to another company in the computer industry- does that make that company evil by association, since apparently this company is evil by their association?
-wraith808
Like it or not, that's what's called "a reputation."
A good one is hard to earn, but easy to lose.
And it has persistence.
Most people subscribe to the notion: "Burn me once, shame on
you. Burn me twice, shame on
me."
So while it's all well and good to change one's 'evil' ways and apologize, there's no guarantee you'll be given a second chance.
That's just the way it goes sometimes. Not everyone believes in redemption.
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) and their choice of Openbox for their default desktop. The fact that much of my personal tech is also showing signs of age could also have a lot to do with it. 
