Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 11:48:33 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>, Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ugly Huge BSD Monster Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20030903114542.03588100@localhost> In-Reply-To: <3F55A19C.73A1614D@mindspring.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20030901205127.0337b270@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20030901203824.0337c920@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20030901205127.0337b270@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20030902180103.0299aaa0@localhost> <3F553FBF.1010208@potentialtech.com>
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At 02:09 AM 9/3/2003, Terry Lambert wrote: >Bill Moran wrote: >[ ... Free Code vs. Commercial Interest ... ] > >> Nonsense. There are a number of companies that are making a go at it >> with that model. Look at Adobe with the free Acrobat viewer. How >> about MySQL for goodness sakes? Redhat may not be the richest company >> in the world, but they're riding out a lousy economy. > >Adobe gives away only the viewer. They sell the creation tool, >and they do not give away source code to the viewer. They guard >the file format and third party tools via vigorous enforcement >practices utilizing all tools at their disposal, including the >DMCA. Exactly. And it's necessary to give away the viewer to stimulate sales of the authoring tool. In short, they're not giving away what they're trying to sell. >The MySQL people don't exactly sell software, they sell support. [Snip] >RedHat doesn't sell Linux. They don't even sell documentation and >training (though they'd desperately like to do so). What RedHat >sells is productization. [Snip] Exactly. Which is the goal of the GPL: To prevent programmers from earning a decent living by being programmers. (It's OK with Stallman if they're reduced to the level of plastic disc manufacturers or tech support grunts.) --Brett
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