Open Source? So Who’s Paying For The Free Lunch?

I’ve just spent several hundred dollars on some Open Source software. Yes, the source was readily available and I still spent a sum that would have kept the cat in Friskies for a year. It did come with a nice shiny GNU license though, which I’ve printed out and framed.

In case you think I’ve lost touch with reality (and my bank account), let me enlighten you. I’m developing a product with a Microchip dsPIC microcontroller as its core. Microchip produce a fully functional demo version of the C compiler for the microcontroller which expires after 30 days. Fair enough – and Microchip expect you to buy a licensed version (if you’re happy) at the end of this period. But the wrinkle is that both the demo version and the licensed version are based on the GNU 'copyleft' license. This means that you must distribute the full source code of your product with the compiled binaries. And Microchip does indeed do this and as far as I’m aware, you can build a Microchip C compiler from it.

Now, I have to admit to the merest shadow of dishonesty crossing my mind. If I’d got the source code for the demo compiler what was there to stop me locating the bit that 'expired' the license and removing it? Apart from my natural honesty (“as the day is long, officer”), not a lot. Admittedly, while the demo version came with the source code, it didn’t come with instructions on exactly how to compile it, so that would have been a bit of work. And it also didn’t come with a Readme file saying how to remove the expiry code – a bit more work to locate and remove. A day or two – a week at most, say.

But hang on. That’s a few days when I could have been working on my new product. And I hope to make a damn sight more than the few hundred dollars that the Microchip license cost me from it. It simply wasn’t worth the hassle of hacking the code. And I am honest. Cross my heart and hope to die.

This set me thinking about open source code. Normally, when I bother to think about it, it brings to mind the tedious ‘SlashDot’ brigade, to whom Open Source is everything that Microsoft is not and who think that Linus Torvalds has a direct line to the Almighty, to boot. Linus might have for all I know, but I’d say that Mr Gates seems to have found the Almighty’s bank account. I know which I’d rather have.

Looking at the 'copyleft' GNU license, it doesn’t say that software must be free. Only that you’ve got to distribute the code with your product. Microchip has exploited this very cleverly. The GNU C compiler is excellent quality – far better than Microchip’s previous home grown version for the PIC18 chip. All Microchip has had to do is bolt a back end on it that spits out dsPIC object code and, magically, Microchip has a first class compiler. Even better, they charge real money for it!

The SlashDots think that all software should be free. I remember the fuss when Borland produced Kylix (Delphi for Linux) – and charged for it. Shock! Horror! Borland actually wanted some money for its efforts. Money which might possibly have been used to pay its programmers and development staff and keep them out of the soup kitchens. How unreasonable!

I don’t know how successful Kylix was or is. All I can tell you is that you can’t buy it from Borland’s online shop (give it a try), which probably says quite a lot. Maybe the SlashDots were so morally offended by actually having to reward someone for honest toil, they didn’t buy it. Who knows?

The converse side of this is large, very profitable companies using Open Source software for nothing. Legitimately, these companies use Open Source code management and secure FTP and TELNET programs, for example, and pay absolutely nothing to the hapless schmucks who developed the stuff.

The classic case is of course IBM. IBM must get down on its knees every night before going to its corporate (and comfortable) bed and thank God for Linus Torvalds. For the cost of a token programmer or two, IBM gets Linux which it can sell as it wants – IBM’s Linux runs very well indeed on IBM hardware, thank you – and in addition it gets to twit Microsoft about the head with some decent competition. Which it doesn’t have to pay for.

Remember – a knife cuts both ways. The Open Source that’s free to you and me is also making money for the corporates. Lots of money. And not a bean goes to the developers.

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August 2005