I completely agree, but it comes across as objectionable and I don’t think influences people.
What made me think of this is the fantastic KDE developer Ian Monroe’s response “Ain’t no free lunch. ;)” to my Best Free Image Hosting: ImageShack?
It reminded me of the fantastic Mozilla community leader Asa Dotzler’s absurd comment “Ian [McKellar], I’m sure you all would love a free lunch, (Flock did too,) but that ain’t how Open Source works or what being a member of the community means.” — but I will save the absurdity for another article.
No free lunch. I seem to hear it all a lot. Why is that?
Everything has a cost, to someone, but it seems free if the cost does not matter to you.
I often wish it didn’t matter to me or did matter to you.
We live in a society of consumerism, for all the fun and frustration that results in, that’s the reality. We have to speak in costs that people care about or figure out a way for them to care about the cost as we see it.
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The great irony of Asa’s comment for me was Mozilla expects others to contribute back without working to make that easy and transparent. The patches I submitted sat and rotted for so long I’d left the company before anyone looked at them. Needless to say the rate at which I submitted patches fell off.
Everyone wants a free lunch. Everyone feels entitled to a free lunch. But then we all end up hungry.
It’s true that there’s no free lunch. However, I feel that assertion with regard to OSS implies that there’s some expectation or reason for recompensation. The problem with that assumption is that I think most people who work on OSS do it because they want to elaborate something that will make their time on the computer more efficient, pleasant or whatever. It’s software for oneself, not for everyone else, which can make everyone else a bit ticked when you’re not enthusiastic about implementing their ideas, fixing their bugs, applying their patches, etc.
IMHO, of course.
Keith, I think it is more basic than that, and less about the people doing the work and OSS. Most people developing free culture I have worked with and talked to like to help other people, and although it is to fill their own need that is not why they also share it. The problem they see is the attitude and expectations of those taking advantage of the free offer.
Just like bloggers that turn off comments on their blog because they understandably are tired of reading what trolls write, other free culture participants get burned out because of the demanding attitudes, and end up saying things like “there is no free lunch”. Worse, it leads many to decrease or stop their participation.
If anyone wants to buy me a lunch just to prove them all wrong, I’m all for it.
Everything has a cost somewhere to someone. On occasion it doesn’t affect us directly and then we see things as being free. Free things tend to end up being abused and then they go away when whoever is really paying for it tires of the abuse.