Why Do People Make and Provide Software and Support for Free?

Question

Hey all, I discovered Linux and open source software a little over 4 years ago now. It transformed the way I thought about software and using the computer. So now in my senior year of college I have chosen for open source software to be the subject of my thesis.
The topic of this thread is the research question of my thesis. But it is also question that I have been thinking about for the last couple years or so. Why do people decide to write software and then give it out for free for all to modify? The second has to do with forums like these. I have always wondered why people do help support on these forums for free when they can be making money doing the exact same thing. Below I will write 13 research questions that you guys can give me your answers or philosophy too.
1. How long have you been using Linux?
2. How did you learn/find out about Linux?
3. Why have you chosen Linux over other operating systems available?
4. Why did you choose to use your current distribution?
5. Do you still use any closed source programs that are not available for Linux?
6. Tell me the reasons that you contribute to the community?
7. What do you think motivates others to contribute to the community?
8. In your opinion, what reasons do you think others provide software to everyone for free?
9. In what ways do you feel contributing to the community could benefit someone's future/career?
10. What is it about contributing or programming that you enjoy most? Is there any aspects you dislike?
11. Are you a member of other non-software communities? Such as a church, voluntary organizations or charities?
12. Does your open source work spillover with any other areas of your life?
13. If you provide support on forums such as these, why do it for free?
You DO NOT have to answer all 13 of the questions above. Please just pick out the ones that you feel are most important or interesting to answer. If someone else says something that you think is interesting feel free to respond to them if you agree or disagree.
If anyone wants to take this discussion further with me than the forum, I will absolutely love too! Just please send me a private message on here and we can figure out further ways of contacting each other.
I plan on using your user names on this forum to identify people in my paper. If any of you are uncomfortable with me using your username in my paper, please let me know! I will be monitoring this thread on a day by day basis for the next two months or so, until my thesis is complete. If you guys have any other questions that pop up, please do not hesitate to ask! Thank you all in advance for responding!

Answer 1

hockeyfighter09 wrote:1. How long have you been using Linux?
Roughly 3 years, with about 2 of those full-time. Tried out for 6 months a couple of years before that, but didn't stick.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:2. How did you learn/find out about Linux?
Older relatives/friends mentioned it in passing due to my interest in computers, was pointed to the (then-new) Ubuntu and actually given a CD (which I never used). Did read up a bit about it at the time, though.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:3. Why have you chosen Linux over other operating systems available?
Frustration with fixing Windows. Most of that came from my tinkering with it with a bunch of patches/hacks/cracks etc, necessitating a reformat every few months. Oh, and viruses would pop-up once in a while. Mac was always out of my budget (was a student, am still not done with my post-grad).
hockeyfighter09 wrote:4. Why did you choose to use your current distribution?
Ubuntu got quite frustrating from two aspects:-
1. 'Freeze' policy kept creating lousy bugs. I would have maybe 12 external ppas enabled and of course they wouldn't always play nice with each other, simply because the repos I had been so in awe of when first starting out didn't actually contain all that many useful programs. Used Mint for a while, same problem (now I understand it was the same base).
2. SNR of forums - When I first joined ubuntuforums it was like heaven-on-earth, so HELPFUL, so many replies almost instantly. It took me roughly 1 and a half months to notice that probably only 2 regular posters were worth listening to, the rest were trying to help with no knowledge to back them up.
So I tried Sidux, OpenSuse, Fedora, and finally read about Arch. Installed it side-by-side, and viola, it was fun! I like tinkering, basically, and Arch allows me to do it far more than Ubuntu/Windows (I class Ubuntu as similar to Windows by now) ever did.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:5. Do you still use any closed source programs that are not available for Linux?
Yes, some games through wine (not sure if that counts as 'available for Linux'. I do not boot into Windows at all, anymore (though its on my laptop).
hockeyfighter09 wrote:6. Tell me the reasons that you contribute to the community?
One of the best things I like about open-source is how most active projects have a community around them. So its not just software, but people working together (of course with heirarchies etc.), fits my Utopian view of how things 'should be(tm)'. I'm a sucker for Utopia, so I try to feed the community as far as possible.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:7. What do you think motivates others to contribute to the community?
A combination of 6. and substituting social deficiencies. Some come across as not actually having much of a social life (probably lack of those sharing nerdy interests in their area) and substituting that in online communities. This isn't really Linux specific, more internet-community specific.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:8. In your opinion, what reasons do you think others provide software to everyone for free?
Perspective of personal developer (one-man projects), I think its a mix of altruism (probably 20-30%), pride (50%) and commercial sensibility (the rest). Most of it is pride, the knowledge that many use my software.
For companies, as mentioned above, its very financially viable, especially in already-saturated markets.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:9. In what ways do you feel contributing to the community could benefit someone's future/career?
Not much, honestly. My career-line is education/engineering, so not much scope there. For someone in the computer sciences, of course there'd be more benefit, but not more than investing the same amount of time into part-time work to expand your portfolio. So for the INDIVIDUAL I believe participating in the community does not bring future/career benefits, we do it because we enjoy the community and want to see it succeed.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:10. What is it about contributing or programming that you enjoy most? Is there any aspects you dislike?
The sense of achievement, that what you do is useful to someone. The BIG dislike is when other members of the community don't feel the same way. There will always be members who are demanding (customer mentality) or abrasive (big tough guy mentality). Both are 'big city' mentalities with no place in the 'homely-little-town' community of Linux (that's how I see it anyway).
Oh, and noobs answering questions with no knowledge (something I've done before as well) are more annoying than noobs asking questions, personal opinion
hockeyfighter09 wrote:11. Are you a member of other non-software communities? Such as a church, voluntary organizations or charities?
I'm very active in my church (various leadership roles), and regularly help out at my fiance's NGO (mostly video work, ffmpeg and cinelerra stuff). A child sponsor and blood donor, etc. etc.
hockeyfighter09 wrote:12. Does your open source work spillover with any other areas of your life?
I don't 'work' on open-source, so a bit of a N/A here. What small patches I provide, or the moderating I do here, is just small contributions. Doesn't spill over to any other areas of my life, because computers are like that, compartmentalized away from the 'real world' (cue Matrix theme tune).
hockeyfighter09 wrote:13. If you provide support on forums such as these, why do it for free?
Like I said, in a small village community setting, people help and are helped for free. I do tech support for friends/relatives in RL for free, so on the forums, for very little time invested, why not?
In answer to litemotiv - yes control is MUCH more important than freedom. I've never really been taken by all of RMS' screaming and ranting. I'm an engineer by training, I want to know what's going on (to a reasonable degree) and control it. Philosophical discussions are interesting but ultimately a waste of time.