How To Make Money With Free Software 187
fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"
That's Impressive (Score:5, Interesting)
My question is - did he just use open-source on principle, or did it confer an advantage on doing this project over the commercial alternatives? Or was it harder to do it with the open source software? Clearly it involved a lot of custom scripting. Did he go as far as to look at the source code to accomplish this, or dig into the software in other ways that couldn't be done with closed source? Anybody know?
I really like the coin (Score:2, Interesting)
and the thoughts that went into it.
I find the design pretty daring and radical. But still, without knowing anything about art or design, I can tell that a lot of thought went into it.
That it's done with free software is ++, and just goes to show how effective it can be, when put into capable hands.
congratulations.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really, but your comment may indicate that you're a bad reader. I was referring to my "new" students, the ones that come in on the first day with lots of presuppositions.
I don't see where I argue against that in my post. Also, "pales" is one of those words that doesn't exactly help anyone understand your point. More than needing to hear specific reasons, I'd want to know why you would feel the need to list them, considering the fact that you own both.
Are you saying that you can do that? Because for many who can't, this is actually a powerful lesson to learn. Many aspiring designers learn this lesson too late; I know a few who use adobe software not because "it works and I can express myself with it" but because "it makes me look professional in conversation." In fact, I am considering dropping a subcontractor for this reason. He can use the software, but he makes excuses for his lack of design training.
Re:Making money (Score:3, Interesting)
You seem to be under the impression that all the banks just failed had the ability to print money. If they had, do you think they would have failed?
Printing too much money doesn't cause this kind of crisis, which is actually about a shortage of money. What printing too much money does is cause inflation. That's how the German hyperinflation [usagold.com] happened. During that period, the German economy roared right along, and everybody was employed, even though they were paid with worthless paper.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:3, Interesting)
Many of my new students think that once they *understand* how to use Photoshop better than most, they are now a graphic designer, creative person, illustrator, web designer, etc. (...) So I point out to them that their Adobe software skills make them think they're pretty good at design. But what happened to their awesome design skills when they started using another software package?
Eh, one tool or two they can still be damn crappy designers. And a good designer could use a pencil and crayons and be completely computer illiterate. I doubt it shows anything except that without understanding how a tool works, you can't use it well.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I've identified the one-tool-only scenario as a stumblingblock for *my* students. So an extra tool thrown in there does seem to help. Other instructors may see things differently.
I don't see where I disagreed with that. But that's at a very high level, and perhaps some of these students will get tired of supporting Adobe, switch to GIMP, or find themselves in some similar situation. I was a design student once and that's how I turned out.
As I said in another reply to a similar comment, the assignment helps me create situations in which I'm able to teach tenets of graphic design to my students. It works well at that, so I'll keep using it. You can do whatever the heck you want.