On biz models

Way back when, you could dream of writing code, selling it. Then it turned out that at best
Microsoft would buy you, at worst, they would develop something similar and give it away
for free. Nowadays you worry about some open-source wanker proving himself by writing
it and giving it away for free too.

Well, that was for PCs, for volume software like browsers, email, messaging, etc. Now the
only way to live off software is to either sell services (e.g., customize open source) or
code for a niche that is too small or specialized for Microsoft et al. I've built tools for
in-house use, or for use by other engineers using eg the company's chips, and am now doing embedded. Microsoft isn't getting into embedded medical programming any time soon :-)

Yes, that's why open source is written: because someone is proving himself, building a reputation.
This is of course fine, adapt or die.

During my year of floating between jobs, I wrote a free program that turned 1960's geiger counters
into computer-logged instruments, using only the ubiquitous sound cards on PCs. I've kept
the source code, but the program is free. In a fit of bells and whistles, the program is also
a stand-alone web server, so you can see what your civil defense GC is measuring remotely.

On adapt or die: many people resist "big" companies, like Micro$oft or Ford. The reality is,
an organism (like a company) has an optimal size for a given environment. Its simply not
feasable to make affordable cars on a small scale. Its not conspiracy, its physics. Economics
is a corollary of physics, of course.