Comment by merlindru
1 day ago
i highly disagree with that framing. the essence of a program is not the fact that people have been running it
you could write a great program and never run it. does that mean the program does now not exist? or that it is not a new, unique thing?
if anything, the essence of a program is made up by all of the things you mentioned!
The confidence and trust accumulated by the users is paramount. I think that’s what we are talking about here.
That does not define a program, that sounds more like it defines a "product" which a product can be free.