Open Source vs Proprietary Software ethos

In the "Open Source and Linux" unit yesterday, the lecturer (lovely guy. Kind and competent) was describing an aspect of the difference between the business models and ethos of proprietary software as opposed to open Source. I've long understood the basic differences, but the reasoning behind the difference ...sort of distilled out for me a little more.

I found myself thinking of that saying "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time."

The key point at which this attaches to proprietary software makers is; they don't *give* fish away. They *sell* them. They have a vested interest in making sure that nobody (who is not employed by them) knows how to catch fish.

By contrast, open source software developers and advanced users have a vested interest in encouraging and helping people to learn to catch their own fish. In fact, the motivation is at least twofold: if the new users learn to catch their own fish, they won't keep relying on the OS guru for fish. What is more, when the guru finds themselves in need of fish, the people they have mentored or meta-mentored are likely to deluge them with all the fish they need.

I am not sure whether this is a novel analogy. Probably not, as it seems so clear and simple.