Slightly OT: is free software development indirectly subsidized?

[D. Michael McIntyre]

On Saturday 03 February 2007 1:50 pm, anthony baldwin wrote:
> for 'free' at night....)  Without these supporting institutions, free
> software would likely wither away, I think.  What do others think?

I don't think professional programmers working on Rosegarden in their off 
hours at home is really a subsidy per se, unless the programmers are paid 
disproportionately high salaries relative the amount of hours their paying 
work demands (eg. they're paid for a 40 hour week, but only work 20.)

I think I'm probably a better example of an indirect subsidy in action, 
actually, and I'm not a professional programmer, or even a formally-trained 
programmer.  If you're curious, you can read an interview where I discussed a 
bit of this at:

http://community.linux.com/community/07/01/23/1935248.shtml?tid=12

That was a good life I used to have.  It's gone now, and the future is a big 
question mark.

-- 
D. Michael McIntyre