Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 14:34:32 -0700 From: Arun Sharma <arun@sharmas.dhs.org> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Perens Replies (was Ivan Leybovich) Message-ID: <20010614143432.A14721@sharmas.dhs.org> In-Reply-To: <20010613144223.A17646@perens.com>; from bruce@perens.com on Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 02:42:23PM -0700 References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010613143637.047be740@localhost> <20010613144223.A17646@perens.com>
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On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 02:42:23PM -0700, Bruce Perens wrote:
> Carly and the management team are very supportive of my Linux and Open
> Source activities. One reason that this is is easy for HP is because
> we make hardware, which has a very clear revenue return attached to
> it. Software is generally an enabler for hardware sales rather than a
> goal in itself.
Bruce, I'd like to note that this distinction between hardware and
software is blurring quite a bit recently. A lot of companies can
make beige boxes and cheap $9.99 10/100 PCI Network cards. The real
intellectual property that companies like HP have seems to be shifting
towards their processor and system design [1].
Now, that design has some properties that are very similar to the
software you're talking about. Namely, it costs a lot to produce,
but very easy to replicate in Taiwan. Have you had a chance to talk
with Carly about open sourcing these things ? I'd love to hear what she
has to say about it.
I used to have a lot of problems reconciling my closed source day job
with writing software driven by the GNU philosophy. I wonder how you're
managing some of these contradictions (between what HP does and what
the author of GPL says).
-Arun
[1] HP also seems to have significant IP in software also, in HP-UX
and the IA-64 compilers.
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