Well would the fact I have never written a single line of code since 1992 that wasn’t directly in service of my getting a degree for the next four years or getting paid for the last 30, tell you how I feel about free labor?
I was a hobbyist assembly language programmer for six year prior to going to college and did some BASIC.
You've spent more time criticizing open source development and struggling fire departments than you have spent criticizing predatory capital buying up every competing piece of software in order to raise the price.
Even if the state and federal government funded firefighter management software, this is still a story of predatory PE.
Predatory buying up of software is not the reason firefighters are having bake sales to maintain equipment - also stated in the article. Do you think companies wouldn’t be interested in making more money if it weren’t for PE?
I was a hobbyist assembly language programmer for six year prior to going to college and did some BASIC.