Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 01:45:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@hwcn.org> To: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: hoek@hwcn.org, freelist@webweaver.net, brett@lariat.org, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: InfoWorld Electric: Linux Zealots Trashing FreeBSD, Berkeley Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980504011619.9190D-100000@james.hwcn.org> In-Reply-To: <199805040318.WAA00441@dyson.iquest.net>
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On Sun, 3 May 1998, John S. Dyson wrote: > and enhancement. The motivation isn't totally altruistic, and Hehe. That's what Adam Smith said. As it turns-out, any functioning society depends on some amount of altruism. :) > The beauty of the free software licenses (in the case of products that > have a network support critical mass) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's key. One of the problems arising then is the movement of a large software project from proprietary -> open. Netscape, having lost a monopoly they never quite had, made the move out of desparation. What would it take for this move to happen with a LARGE project that doesn't have any equivalent either free or proprietary? The 'net by itself is very poor at begining new large projects. Consider the lack of a free Office competitor. The solution to this is to convince competitors of LARGE proprietary project that the only way they can produce an equivalent product before the original developer reaches critical mass and becomes Microsoft II: The Trilogy Completes is to leverage the 'net. Hopefully this is something Netscape will prove. GPL tries to handle the development of a LARGE proprietary product with its viral nature. If Netscape is succesful, then I would consider it an argument that the viral nature of the GPL is quite unnecessary (in addition to being damn annoying and even harmful). Like I said, time will tell. Until the software world has settled into its final form, I reserve all final judgement. In the meantime, I am quite content to play the part of a cog. :) -- Outnumbered? Maybe. Outspoken? Never! tIM...HOEk To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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