[WalterBright]

> This isn't because of lesser regulation or a lack of standards and oversight, it's because over the past decade it has become so easy for anyone with an Internet connection to contribute.

If the government required anyone writing software to have a license, and a permit, and have the result be approved by an agency before it was distributed, there'd be orders of magnitude less people entering the business.

[y4mi]

you're not required to have a licence to do whatever you want in your home as well.

you can make your own chairs, furniture, oven, whatever...

its just easier to share your homemade products/code with the community over the internet, which makes software development look less regulated.

and you sure as hell won't be able to get a job outside of startups/web development without a license either.

[WalterBright]

> in your home

That's why I mentioned "distribute".

> without a license

I don't know any software engineers who have a license, or that a permit is required, or government approval of any sort.

You can bake cookies for yourself all you want, no problem. Try and sell them, and you need to get permits, inspections, etc. Try and cut hair, you need a license.

[y4mi]

licenses such as LPIC and its windows equivalents hold a surprising significance in (dev-)ops. and the java certificate is often a requirement from what i've seen on my job hunts.

i admit that i can't say anything beyond this though.

[WalterBright]

Those are not licenses, as in they are not required by law for anything. I wrote a commercial Java compiler a while back for Symantec, and no permits nor license nor review whatsoever was required by the government to do it.

As for running my own software business, my only involvement with the government is registering the business and paying the taxes.