Posted by: Per Abrahamsen
on December 11, 2003 01:09 AM
The vast majority of development jobs are for software for internal use only, and the license doesn't matter as it is not distributed and allow internal use. Obviously Linux (and other free software) experience is relevant for many of these jobs, as the source availability, lack of EULA restrictions on internal use and low price makes it an attractive bsis for custom software.
The idea that most software develment is for shrink-wrapped end.user software come from people who aren't programmers, or students who haven't entered the job market yet. What most people see is mass-marketed end-user software, so that is what people expect most software is.
Also, given the widespread popularity of Linux and the BSD's, Apacha, Samba, sendmail and others, experience with free software is a huge plus for many sysadm positions.
Working on internal software or as sysadmin gives good opportunity to contribute improvements made to the free tools you use as part of your work back to the community.
The "handfull of exception" claim can only come from someone who doesn't follow free software development. Even only counting the small fraction of programmers working on software intended for wide distribution (more than 1000 users), the number is absurd low. On the few free software development project I follow, I know the names of more than 50 full-time paid developers. There are, of course, far more than that.
The number of free software developers working on non-internal programs with fewer user are much higher, but difficult to estimate. But just the number of people working on free academic research software must be much higher. Just estimate the number of such people working on the average university, and multiply that with the number of universities.
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Posted by: Per Abrahamsen on December 11, 2003 01:09 AMThe idea that most software develment is for shrink-wrapped end.user software come from people who aren't programmers, or students who haven't entered the job market yet. What most people see is mass-marketed end-user software, so that is what people expect most software is.
Also, given the widespread popularity of Linux and the BSD's, Apacha, Samba, sendmail and others, experience with free software is a huge plus for many sysadm positions.
Working on internal software or as sysadmin gives good opportunity to contribute improvements made to the free tools you use as part of your work back to the community.
The "handfull of exception" claim can only come from someone who doesn't follow free software development. Even only counting the small fraction of programmers working on software intended for wide distribution (more than 1000 users), the number is absurd low. On the few free software development project I follow, I know the names of more than 50 full-time paid developers. There are, of course, far more than that.
The number of free software developers working on non-internal programs with fewer user are much higher, but difficult to estimate. But just the number of people working on free academic research software must be much higher. Just estimate the number of such people working on the average university, and multiply that with the number of universities.
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