[scribus] Is Linux/Scribus viable? (was New Linux User...)

[John Beardmore]

John Brown wrote:
> Gregory Pittman wrote:

>> Scribus's role in this is to just keep pushing forward, so that it can 
>> increasingly be seen as a viable alternative to ID and others, and 
>> companies that do DTP have a harder time justifying commercial licenses 
>> for proprietary software.
>>
>> Greg
>>
> 
> Another poster mentioned that the reason Scribus development was slower
> than desired was that the developers did not have a lot of free time, and (I
> think) there are only a few of them. Why do the people in the Open Source
> community always talk around the reason for the shortage of spare time?
> 
> Well, the reason is that by day:
> 
> 1) The developers work for greedy capitalist pigs who get the money to pay
>     their salaries by selling "commercial licences for proprietary software", or
> 2) They *are* greedy capitalist pigs with a lot of responsibilities, one of the
>     major ones being to pay the salaries of their staff.
> 
> Nothing in life is free. So-called free-to-air television is paid for by advertisers.
> The money to pay for "free" software has to come from somewhere. Why
> is it evil if it comes from the people who use the software?

It's not Evil, it's just a transaction.

But given the choice of living a world where the transactions are 
financial and frequently exploitative, and a world where the 
transactions are social and socially inspired, many of us will choose 
the latter. After all we only seek money so we can fulfil our biological 
and social drives. If we can get to the 'end' without the 'means', 
that's cool.

I've been a greedy capitalist pig niche market software developer in the 
past, but I wasn't comfortable and became increasingly disinterested, so 
I made enough money then got out.

Now I work to develop environmental projects, developing an ethically 
motivated team of experts that undertake all kinds of environmental 
projects. I wasn't Evil(C)(R) before[1], but now, I'm not morally 
ambivalent either. There really is a point to getting up in the morning.

Of course, you're right -  I was only able to start a company to do high 
quality low budget environmental projects because I'd got a financial 
reserve after working for market research, financial information 
companies and boo.vom -  no free lunch, but a sweet desert.


Cheers, J/.



[1]	I wasn't so much part of the 'evil empire' as the
	'nation of indifference'.
-- 
John Beardmore, MSc EDM (Open), B.A. Chem (Oxon), CMIOSH, AIEMA, MEI
Managing Director, T4 Sustainability Limited. http://www.T4sLtd.co.uk/
Carbon Trust Consultant: Energy Audit, Carbon Footprint, Design Advice
Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme, (EEAS), Registered Assessor
Phone: 0845 4561332   Mobile: 07785 563116   Skype: t4sustainability