GPL, BSD, Opensource/Free Software movement.

I've be a mindless supporter of these movements for years now not because I was a developer myself but because most of them provided me with a lot of useful free software.

However now that I'm becoming more of a programmer I'm questioning the ideology behind these movements.

1. For which situations are these intended? For every developer?
2. Doesn't it go against the developer himself? How can he secure profit while still sustain such projects?

Just willing to learn.
Thanks.

>>72
So you're just practicing rhetorical fallacies, then?
I'm sorry?

>>73
You are confused. In communist ideologues, property and capital belongs to the public. The free software activist's idea is that users cannot have freedom whenever users accept the terms of proprietary software. Freedom in this case permits useful programs to foster a community of goodwill, cooperation, and collaboration. Free software is all about the right to live a good life and cooperate with your community. Cooperation happens when people desire to cooperate. Proprietary software will forbid and restrict cooperation. There is no forced sharing here, only the idea that users should have permission to share and cooperate. The idea is that developers should not have the power to restrict society's right to share and cooperate.
While true, I would still argue that Stallman and others sees proprietary software as oppressive analogous to how Marx and others saw property ownership, ownership of capital and the bourgeoisie as oppressive. They sound quite similar, albeit with different methods and intangible things (in this case, software).
No. The GPL does not keep code public. People make GPL code public because they desire to make it public. When you publish software, you've made the software pubilc. If you never distribute software, you will keep the software private. If I hire someone to extend my copy of GNU ls and rename it to FV Directory Lister, I am not required to make that public; nobody will have a copy except me and maybe the developer. As soon as I convey a copy to my friend van Rossum, van Rossum is not required to make FV Directory Lister public; van Rossum has permission to make it public or van Rossum can keep his copy private. What the GPL does is forbid software distributors to restrict other people from sharing. People share because they want to share, not because they have to.
Right, if they so chose to release their work(s) under the GNU GPL (as there's plenty of other licenses). Also, going to sidestep a bit, what if an individual(s) were to release their code under the GPL and then not keep their obligation to keeping the code public, what penalties (if any) would they receive from the FSF if reported?