On Tuesday 25 December 2001 20:08, you wrote: > This is an interesting discussion. I agree with some of your points, but > am not convinced by others. For example, if a company hires a dozen > programmers and they spend a year creating and tweaking and debugging > code, even if you think the company has no right to the *idea* (I am not > convinced of that though), surely they have the right to the code itself, > if they so choose? Otherwise somebody could just repackage it with much > less effort and no development costs and make profit on the other > company's investments. > > As far as $100 for an upgrade being expensive or not - I guess it depends > on what the upgrade is... > > doug > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Wednesday, December 26, 2001): > >On Tuesday 25 December 2001 19:17, you wrote: > >> What do people think about free vs commercial software in general? I > >> myself don't object to commercial software. In fact, I work for a > >> company that makes very high-quality commercial software with a great, > >> loyal customer base. > >> > >> Surely there is nothing wrong with paying to have software supported and > >> updated? > >> > >> doug > >> > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Wednesday, December 26, 2001): > >> >MAndrakesoft is committed to free software. All the Mandrake Tools are > >> >licensed under the GNU GEneral Public License and source is available. > >> > Find another major distro that does that! > > > >Nothing wrong with it until it becomes the only game in town, or you have > > to update at an exorbitant fee every other year. With the open source > > programs you can see what's going on under the hood, tinker with it , fix > > it, or if your like me, break it. And you don't have to pay to reinstall > > it. The argument has always been that you can't make money with free > > software. What is software? It is a string of letters and symbols that in > > effect write a formula for a machine to operate from. I submit that > > folks have been making a comfortable living by selling their services > > using the formulas necessary to make "air conditioning work", "heating > > systems", internal combustion engines and on and on. All these things are > > based on public domain mathematics and formulas, but they are packaged > > and sold to people who want the benefits but don't have the time, > > knowledge or skills, or all three to make use of the formulas in a useful > > or productive manner. Intellectual content is ludicrous because, what > > the mind of one man can concieve of another can too. Case in point > > Edison and Tesla. Money and deciet won > > out. > > >The more intelegent person was Tesla IMHO, but the formulas for the > > electron flows that were developed are used world wide and are free, and > > a lot of people make a living using them. Closed source is fine because > > it gives an edge to someone as a starter, but patent laws and copyright > > laws need to change, because the closed source community is willing to > > sue at the > > drop of > > >a hat when someone comes out with a program or process that looks even > >remotely like what they do even though the thoughts behind the new process > >may be totally original to the individual presenting them. So you get a > >multimillion dollar company suing Joe Schmo and guess who will win, the > >money every time. "You've stolen my property!" Bah Humbug, ideas are no > >man's property. MandrakeSoft and some of the others are making a pretty > > fair run at making money on freesoftware because they are packaging it > > and presenting it in a manner that someone like me can relate to and > > finds useful, and they are not charging " make me and my company officers > > filthy rich" prices. $100 for an upgrade! Fixing something that should > > never have been broken in the first place! Thievery I call it. This is > > my own > > opinion > > >and totally unsolicited by anyone, : ) > >-- > >Dennis M. registered linux user # 180842 > >
Just to add my $1000 worth . . . In my stupider days, I needed an OCR package to convert faxes and submitted articles for my international publication. I was using win 3.1. Well, I bought my first OCR "Professional" package for a cool grand a) because I needed it and b) because all the reviews raved about it. I installed the package, and it didn't work as advertised. There was no recourse: buyer beware! Within a month, an "upgrade" became available for only $199! Well, I snapped that one up fast! It didn't work much better. So, I learned how to type -- it was faster and much more accurate than these "professional" packages. So it went for most of the software I bought for Win, including a very famous relational database package. The support, if you could afford it, basically told me "It's your problem: you bought it." I solved my own problems with workarounds, including encrypting passwords as fake dll's . . . sigh! Thievery? Too polite a word! Extortion -- a little too harsh. (Btw: If you're interested in how "copyright" came about, check back into the book industry's history. It's no wonder why England's Penguin Books would not allow their books to be re-sold in a certain country!) Bottom line: Open Source is what computing was all about before the "boys got greedy". All the best on Christmas Day! Regards Andre ---------------------------------------- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; name="message.footer" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Description: ---------------------------------------- -- Please pray the Holy Rosary to end the holocaust of abortion. Remember, in your prayers, the suffering souls in Purgatory. May God bless you abundantly with His love! For a free Cenacle Scriptural Rosary Booklet -- http://www.webhart.net/csrb/
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