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From: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb>
Message-Id: <199707131926.MAA04002@hub.freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: My opinion about freebsd (fwd)
To: davidn@labs.usn.blaze.net.au (David Nugent)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 12:26:07 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: devnull@gnu.ai.mit.edu, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199707130818.SAA01309@labs.usn.blaze.net.au> from "David Nugent" at Jul 13, 97 06:18:37 pm
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> >  But I think money will always
> >  be dominant.  I don't think we can get free food the way we have
> >  free software, because software is inherently easy to copy, and
> >  restirctions that make software non-free are artificial.  By
> >  contrast, food production has always been time-consuming.
> 
> Ouch. And developing software is not? Time for a reality check.

	time per unit of grain (bushel, pound, kilo) vs
	time per unit of software (copy of a program)

	the first copy of a program is very expensive
	the marginal cost of all other copies is exceedingly low.

	ask someone about the cost of a cd of software vs
	teh cost of writing the software.  therein lies the difference
	btwn food and software in terms of production cost.

	in software (and microprocessor design) all the cost if
	front loaded  (note: all means 90%+)

jmb