(when I talk about free software, think free as in freedom, libre)
I think commercial software is important and will continue to be important. Its true that Linux has Windows beat hands down as far as stability, but what about hardware support? Spending hours trying to configure the Linux kernel for specific needs might be an adventure for geeks [*] , but the average end user doesn't want to deal with such situations. I have yet to find an free solution that can match the capabilities of Dreamweaver. I have yet to play a free game that I would consider to be in the same class as most commercial game products.
That being said, I think some commercial software is nothing more than a lot of marketing smoke. Take, for example, Adobe Acrobat. The full retail version is very expensive and does little more than convert .doc and other files to PDFs. I think free software makes its greatest contribution by providing an alternative for such software. By promoting those free solutions to others, the free software community can challenge the marketability of such smoke and mirrors software.
Todd
The effect of applying this statement to business in general is astounding to me: working for profit "breeds a lack of caring for the actual project." I might be persuaded on that one, but it would have been more correct to say "working for profit breeds an intense focus on solving customer problems." If you're working for the project itself, maybe Free Software is the way to go.
Should all businesses then charge only for material cost and "make money" off of providing support? Where's the incentive for a company (as opposed to an individual) to invest in researching new ideas? A cure for cancer isn't going to come out of someone's garage, nor will a company invest billions developing one if they're expected to give it away. Same problem with health care -- "free" health care for everyone (paid for by taxes) will only decrease the quality of that care as the incentive to focus on the patient decreases.
I like the ideal of Free Software far better than just Open Source. Additionally, getting rid of software "licenses" would allow the
purchaser of a piece of software to do with it what they want within the
bounds of normal copyright law. And it doesn't necessarily mean that I
must get it for free.
I think we need to find a balance: paying for some software should be a normal part of life, and copyright/patent law will guarantee that ideas aren't lost or abused.
--Dan
On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 22:37:52 -0600, "Steve Dibb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
said:
<snip>
The opposite side of this whole scenario is building programs with a profit-only approach. I tend to think that this naturally breeds a lack of caring for the actual project, as I tend to do my work solely to get paid, instead of having a backend agenda to help out the community with my development. I'm driven to succeed because I need to get paid, and then I need to protect my investment. Not only am I sweating and stressing now, but already I'm putting a lot into my future that I'll have to continue to support it with promotion, and protect it from piracy. Plus, the only guarantee that I can give people that my program is what they want is my word only, which is obviously biased from a marketing perspective. In the end, it's all for me, and ends up only for me, and if the program is unused, does badly, then it's lost to the world, and I sit at home with no job, alone with my satisfaction that nobody can have the source code but me.
My commercial perspective on the matter may be a little harsh, but I think it's pretty obvious that any company working solely for-profit cannot at the same time proactively care about their customers, as they say they do.
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