Well, RedHat does this. Some items they copyright, but the vast majority if
their stuff is open source under the covers protected by some copy left or
apache/MIT/BSD license.
See, very few people will take the time to compile it themselves... The
small (i.e.) $500/year support fee is well worth it when compared to the
likes of Microsoft, Oracle, and god forbid.... IBM :)
Once the software (os, or otherwise) becomes mission critical, the money is
with it. Take education for example... Would am institution buy FL Studio,
Reason, Ableton, protools... Usually this depends on price and quality.
Would they buy LMMS? Perhaps, if it were cheaper than the others and
offered comparable support, quality and features.
But selling open source can be a slippery slope. Before you know it, money
that was once considered charitable or surplus becomes expected revenue and
the free services start becoming deliberately incontinent. So when the op
is worried about LMMS becoming commercial, it is a completely valid
concern. What is keeping us from tearing down the wiki's and convoluting
our make file? Well, a good team of FOSS advocates, but what happens when
they're no longer around? Its hard to say.
I offered my GPL software for free for years until Oracle deliberately
broke it (and all Java software like it) forcing developers to get
certified. To recoup my losses I stared selling the certified version at a
premium and now a year later it's a steady source of revenue and has funded
some purchase I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. (And yes, I am
hiring).
In my case it was a series of peculiar events that turned a GPL product
commercial, and I still offer and support the free version (within reason)
but for many, it is pure greed (or good business sense) that drives the
switch to commercial software and often it comes in a flavor that still
holds true to the GPL.
For example, I've paid money for Canonical (Ubuntu) support, Synergy
(remote mouse/keyboard) support, I've even paid developers to write GPL
code.
So to say "commercial without copyright is free" is not entirely true. It
is a valid business model and even the FSF supports it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and
search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck
Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code
search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds
_______________________________________________
LMMS-devel mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lmms-devel
