[AccessD] OT: open source

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that for every dozen different open
source applications, there are 2 dozen different reasons why the
author(s) decided to make it open source. None are right, none are worng,
they just are.

I don't think that this really captures the point I was going after, but
it's the best I can do to explain it at 6:30 in the morning :)

==========The fact that you're up and able to type is impressive enough. :)
I understand open source within the context you're speaking -- I don't
understand it within a major corporation like MS. But what you're talking
about is really just a natural evolution of freeware/shareware... You guys
offer your stuff because you want to, not because you're forced to. 

As for the hair anology, you're comparing open source to charity, community
good will, or philantropy. Developers have been giving it away for free
since ... since always -- that's nothing new. Competitors and even
governments forcing open source from other major producers isn't the same
thing. I'm talking about the market forces, and government manipulation, at
play right now that are forcing MS to take it all off. :) To me, producers
and governments complaining about MS not going open code is a red herring --
and it's difficult to even apply the same logic to other industries. Even
the recipe analogy doesn't really work -- but most intellectual property is
protected to a degree. The question I guess -- after talking this through is
does code NEED to be protected. I mean, realistically, what would I do with
it even if I had it? :) I guess what concerns me the most about exposing
code is theft -- not so much of the actual code but of the ideas in the
code, but there again, can that really be protected anyway? I don't know.
I've developed a really good chocolate chip cookie recipe using Splenda and
a good butter substitute. If a company took that recipe and turned it into a
best seller and didn't credit or pay me for it, I'd be pis*ed. Hope that
analogy finally makes my position clearer. 

I will readily admit that I simply do not have the expertise to adequately
do it justice, and if it's going to happen, it will. But, as I'm fond of
saying, I don't get it. :) However, as long as whatever happens comes about
through pure market forces, I'm OK with it -- have to be, that's the way it
works. :) 

Susan H.