Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 12:51:17 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Sun's web site Message-ID: <20000818125117.C9961@physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <399CDA16.E14E80C9@mail.ptd.net>; from tms2@mail.ptd.net on Fri, Aug 18, 2000 at 02:39:18AM -0400 References: <20000816221119.B7276@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <4.3.2.7.2.20000817232139.04cf0840@localhost> <399CDA16.E14E80C9@mail.ptd.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Thomas M. Sommers said on Aug 18, 2000 at 02:39:18: > If they are giving away their source, they probably aren't planning on > making much of a profit from it any more. If they use the GPL, they can > be pretty sure that no one else will make one, either. Management has a > fiduciary duty to the shareholders. If they give away their source, and > some other company makes a killing with it, management has breached that > duty. But if they use the GPL, it is very unlikely that any other > company will make that killing, and management will be in the clear. > Perhaps they could have made a lot of money by keeping the source > closed, but no one will ever really know. > > In other words, using the GPL lets management cover their posteriors if > they decide to open their source. > > I am not advocating this, but just describing what I think goes through > some people's minds. In the case of Sun, I think the case is this: (1) With GNOME they have no choice, they have to stick with the GPL. Exactly why they're embracing GNOME isn't so clear to me, but I think there's no question that even the present version of GNOME is a vast improvement over CDE. (2) With StarOffice, their target is really Microsoft, and they're using the "Linux community" to gain support and develop a reasonable userbase; using the GPL is the best way to do this. MS Office has such a huge market lead that a proprietary StarOffice has just about no chance of getting anywhere. (3) As the linux sites have been pointing out, this sort of money is really pocket change for Sun, HP, IBM et al; they're just "hedging their bets", they don't stand to lose all that much even if it doesn't work out, while they could conceivably gain a lot if it does. Rahul. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000818125117.C9961>