[Ffmpeg-devel] Re: [PATCH] Partial port of ffmpeg to MS Visual C - and a note on the inttypes.h issue

[Steve Lhomme]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 05:53:25PM +0100, Stefan Heinzmann wrote:
>> Open source software projects, as we all know, are there to prove a
>> point. The production of code that is useful to some is a purely
>> coincidental side effect. You should be grateful that there are
>> right-minded people who have the truth firmly planted in their heads and
>> don't hesitate to disseminate it to you. It is for your best, although
>> you might not yet realize it! And, hey, it is free! ;-)
> 
> It's a common misconception that open source software in general and
> FFmpeg in particular is written with usefulness to third parties in
> mind.  It is not.  Hence all third parties that appear complaining about
> a lack of usefulness are not offered a warm welcome.

It is assumed not only for open source _libraries_ but also for closed 
libraries in general. If you write a library the goal is that it's used 
by other people if not don't make it a library.

Now it's a misconception between free and business people of what the 
goal of Open Source is. For the former it's a political act to ban use 
of any closed software whenever possible. For the latter it's to make 
generic code common to many people to avoid them reinventing the wheel. 
You can adjust the level of the former by choosing the license (GPL for 
the extreme, LGPL for moderate and BSD for soft). You can adjust the 
level for the latter by making the code portable to different OS/IDEs.

Steve