The Rookie Coder

Is money really the answer?

Hello,

Growing up I spent a lot of time on IRC channels. It became apparent to me at a very early age through the voices of other people and the error messages that were popping up on my screen that Microsoft had not really done me any great help. You were always looked down on for running windows and Red Hat Linux was always the answer to most of the problems you had.

As time went on I began to form an opinion on the subject and I changed from Microsoft programming languages to Java. From the start I always thought that when I write software I am writing it for the Linux platform and that is it.  My reasons were:

1: Linux is Free
2: If anything ever needs tweaking it can be done very easily.
3: Open Source ect is for the better of man kind.

After attending the Microsoft Imagine cup and going into the Microsoft head quarters and seeing everything first hand I then began to see what all the money was being used for, to further development. (But yes, I was also shocked how brain washed everyone was).

Then over the last year SilverLight and a host of other technologies have been released, but with Linux left a little in the dark. Yes I understand that a lot of development is done by people for free because they love programming (and who doesn’t) and the end result can always be given away for free, but if there was a cost, even something small like 10 Euro would it really cause that much of a problem?.

I have always loved Linux and everything it stands for, but I also feel that if a cost was involved we could be going a lot further then we have already. Better documentation, better products and better overall coverage.

Linux has always not been a money making thing and it probably would have never got to where it is now if it was, but now that we are here maybe its time to fund everything and go that extra step.