Re: RMS's note to am-info regarding software development models...

[Ben Drasin <drasin@mindspring.com>]

> -snip-
> I assume that proponents of a software tax think we are not currently
> spending enough.  My question is, where do they draw the line?  You say
> that you don't suggest funding all development this way... but can you
> give a ballpark figure for how much you would fund this way?  That's all
> I'm asking.  I'm not saying I wouldn't support it, because I still don't
> even know exactly what's being proposed.
>
> Personally, I could probably accept any increased funding that goes to
> basic research.  But as I said before, I don't think the government
> should be funding open source knockoffs of things like Word or Oracle's
> database software.

  Well, PostgreSQL (see http://www.postgresql.org) is an open source
database server that was developed at the University of Calafornia.  It
doesn't have all of the features of Oracle, but for some purposes it could
be a competative product.  Is it wrong for the University to produce such an
application?  I say it is not.
    You want to pin me down to a dollar figure?  Well...I'd say that funding
of free software development is at least 10% as important as researching a
space based ballistic missile system which everyone knows won't work, so
that would give RMS a budget of around 500 million dollars a year (I just
made up that figure, or course).  Seriously, though-I personally have in
mind a figure along the lines of the national endowment for the arts.

Bye-Ben