The Register: Open source a needed outlet for programming pros [via Slashdot: Open Source Developers Mostly Pros, Not Weenies] The chief motivations for donating time and effort to the open source community are varied, but include professional advancement; the need for mental stimulation; a personal belief that software ought to be open (not necessarily free); a chance to acquire new skills or refine existing ones; and practical needs for code which isn’t commercially available.
Based on a survey of Sourceforge project leaders.
Just the other day, I was explaining to my father (an economics professor) why so many of the best and the brightest of the commercial software industry spend their free time giving code away for free. This is, in a narrow view, economically irrational. Speaking only from my personal experience, I gave him many of the same reasons that this survey found. Glad to know I fit a stereotype.
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