Subject: Re: CCL:Open Source scientific software

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 15:24:12 +0200

>     > More than a bit of effort would be needed ! Old academic
>     > research ideas of free circulation of software are continuously
>     > decreasing, in spite of Linux. And Linux will probably not stay
> 
> Sad enough, but I have to agree.

Even free circulation of ideas is getting rarer, due to patents,
intentionally withheld details in publications, etc. All of which is
a consquence of a more and more "market-oriented" approach to science.
Instead of encouraging scientists to become "profitable", research funding
organizations ought to insist on the free dissemination of all results
and byproducts (such as software) of all publicly funded research.

> To my mind it is very much up to you to decide where we are going. If
> we join efforts to make nice GUIs for our programs we do write anyway
> (to be ahead), we will get them.
> 
> If we pay scientific software vendors (the money they need) for
> support and enhancements of their product instead of paying fees to
> obtain it, and also favor OpenSource software (not saying "free beer"
> software !) to closed source products, we will get them !

An interesting approach would be to commission (and pay) professional
programmers to produce scientific software that is then made available
as Open Source. That way you pay for what you want (the software) but
not for what you don't need (the marketing and legal departments of
software companies).
-- 
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Konrad Hinsen                            | E-Mail: [email-masked]
Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire (CNRS) | Tel.: +33-2.38.25.55.69
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