Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...

© FUOC • P07/M2101/02709 62 Free Software
Hours per week Percentage
Between 20 and 40 hours 9.2%
More than 40 hours 7.1%
Note
In addition to showing the level of professionalisation of free software development teams,
the time spent in hours is a relevant parameter when it comes to making cost estimates
and comparisons with private development models in the industry. With free
software, for now, we just have the end products (new software deliveries, synchronisation
of new code in versions systems...) which do not allow us to know how much time
the developer has spent on achieving them.
An analysis of these figures tell us that about 80% of developers perform the-
se tasks in their free time, whereas only one in five could consider that they
spend as much time on this activity as a professional. Later, in the chapter on
software engineering, we will see how this data matches developers' contribu-
tions, since they both appear to follow the Pareto law (vid. section 7.6).
4.6. Motivations
There has been speculation and speculation remains as to the motivations for
developing free software, especially when it is done in free time (which, as we
have seen, corresponds to about 80% of developers). As in previous sections,
we only have the survey data, which is why it is important to realise that the
answers have been given by the developers themselves, meaning that they
may be more or less coherent with reality. The percentages shown next exceed
the 100% mark because there was an option for participants to select several
answers.
In any case, it appears from their answers that most want to learn and to de-
velop new skills (approximately 80%) and that many do so in order to share
knowledge and skills (50%) or to participate in a new form of cooperation
(about a third). The first data is not surprising, given that a professional with
more knowledge will be in greater demand than one with less. However, it is
not quite so easy to explain the second data, and it would even seem to con-
tradict Nikolai Bezroukov's opinion in "A second look at the cathedral and the
bazaar" (December, 1998) [91] that the leaders of free software projects are ca-
reful not to share all the information in their possession in order to perpetuate
their power. Meanwhile, the third most frequent choice is undoubtedly, a true
reflection of developers' enthusiasm about the way free software is created in
general; it is difficult to find an industry in which a group of lightly organised
volunteers can technologically speaking stand up to the sector's giants.
Although the "classical" theory for explaining why free software developers
spend time contributing to this type of projects is reputation and indirect fi-
nancial benefits in the medium and long term, it would appear that developers
themselves disagree with these claims. Just 5% of those surveyed replied that