On 3 August 2011 03:59, Alexandre Prokoudine
 <alexandre.prokoudine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
  On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 6:45 AM,  pshirkey wrote:
  This is the kind of feedback that we can only get
when companies make
 the
 effort to use Linux tools as part of a solution.
 Chicken vs egg. 
 I still believe (what a naive person am I) that it's possible to come
 up with reasonable business models around FOSS (fingers crossed for
 MuseScore folks), but IMO part of the job is gettings contacts with
 companies who do contracts with governments, and generally staying
 tuned to what's happening around. That means quitting the dangerous
 "I'm just a programmer" attitude. Monotechnics is hardly an excuse. 
 Developers should develop software, end of. A lot of free software is
 developed on a voluntary basis, because the developer wants to, not
 because they're paid. You have no right to tell these developers it is
 their job to go chasing government contracts. Such activities are much
 better suited to people with big strong forceful opinionated
 personalities such as yourself. 
And then people like you get to reap the rewards when money is invested
into <you favorite software> ...  There are lots of angles to cover to
progress the platform/ecosystem.  There are plenty round here who spend a
substantial amount of their time working to get contracts so they can
invest time and money into developing tools further.
Govt contracts however are few and far between.
--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd