One thing you might try is to start by writing some small CGI webapps/scripts. Later on, it will give you an appreciation of what the frameworks are actually doing for you.
Also, if you're not married to Python, and are looking for something really simple and easy to learn, you might try Perl's CGI::Application (along with some plug-ins).
My guess is that tech companies like recent grads because they can get away with paying less ("interns welcome!"), and also the employee is usually not married and doesn't have kids, so they can spend a lot of extra hours on the job.
I'm not so sure that liberal licensing leads to popularity. One obvious counter-example of your supposition is GNU/Linux vs. BSD.
Incidentally, the last thing the FSF is worried about is popularity, yet look at how popular GCC, Emacs, bash, and other GPL'd software is.
Licensing your software with a very liberal license may help make your software more popular with some large companies who are in a position to take advantage of it (and I suspect timing is important here as well), but I'm not so sure it makes your software popular with the developer community.
It's certainly complicated, and depends on several factors.
One thing that's important for languages like Tcl is that they can be embedded within other projects, and for that reason a liberal license was very important. Of course, it's certainly not the only thing you need. The GPL is probably ok for "finished product" sorts of things that you don't need to link against to utilize it.
From what I've seen, projects that go GPL tend to be more community-focused, and seem to more readily gather a contributor community around them. I think contributors tend to like the idea of their contribution being free in perpetuity.
MIT-licensed projects, OTOH, tend to be mostly worked-on by their creator (again, FWICT). That is, there are fewer individuals willing to contribute code to a project which could simply be scooped up and put into some company's closed-source product. I get the impression that MIT-licensed projects are always looking to be popular, and feel entitled to be so, since users can basically do whatever they want with the code.
A lot of careful thought by lawyers, the community, and the FSF has gone into the most current GPL. I'd suggest that it's worth considering.
Yeah, I don't get it either, nailer. Massive insecurity, I guess.
I routinely notice when someone is smarter than me, or has a better memory than me, or who can visualize complex logical structures better than me. It sucks (for me, in this instance), but that's just the way it is.
I dunno. I think taking advice from successful business people is hit-or-miss. Sometimes they're successful because they're good, and other times because they were at the right place at the right time and just got lucky.
Regarding finding a "co-founder"... could you please elaborate on what that means? That is, I'm someone who might be interested in getting together with someone with complementary skills. Do I have my own lawyer put together some kind of founder's agreement? Or do you use the other party's lawer -- who's forming the legal paperwork for the business entity -- and have them add you in somehow (eg., as an LLC member)?
I know one successful fellow who used no paperwork or contract at all and everything worked out well (so far), but the "real founder" (who's name was on everything) could've easily taken him to the cleaners.
A co-founder is someone who starts a company with you and owns a portion of the company similar in size to your portion. The exact details of how you work it out, how you structure the company and how you involve lawyers are up to you.
Generally, I think you should avoid founding companies with people you think are going to rip you off. That's not to say that you shouldn't have proper paperwork.
I've got a friend who wants to start up a website. He's already got the domain, the idea, and needs admin and webdev help. But there's no business entity yet. He wants to include me, and have me share in the fruits of our labor, but sees no reason to put anything on paper. I'm guessing once an LLC is formed, only his name will be on it.
I trust my friend. But I've also seen money do strange things to people, and was wondering what the options are.
and for never selling out.