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If wishing made it so...
... then people could write software without expecting payment, and no one would be harmed.

Open source is a replacement product. How many new functions have been created by open source projects?
Now, stay with me on this. If someone has been paid for writing software, and someone else comes along and volunteers to write software that does the same thing for free, what is going to happen?
Yes, an unemployed formerly paid programmer.

You do have a point that outsourcing and offshoring have had an even bigger impact than open source in creating the current employment crisis.
Open source is contributing to outsourcing and offshoring indirectly. How so? In a few words:

Shaped up to ship out.

By standardizing on Linux, etc., companies are assuring that outsource and offshore providers have the economies of scale that make certain low prices and (apparently acceptably) reliable response.
If a lot of IT at a company were built on comparatively rare software, there'd be fewer people able to assume the job, and maybe the company wouldn't see a sufficiently big advantage to act.

Think of moving to open source as getting a passport. (And remember that we're talking about the Unix world here. So far, open source has had little impact on Microsoft, except maybe slowing their growth a bit.) All the company needs to do to reduce IT staffing costs is buy a ticket. And they're getting travel brochures every day.
Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 01/15/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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