Author: Don Dailey
Date: 13:17:37 11/11/98
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On November 11, 1998 at 15:08:21, Dann Corbit wrote: >On November 11, 1998 at 12:04:58, Don Dailey wrote: >[snip] >>Hi Dan, >> >>There are already a bunch of commercial products out for Linux. It >>turns out that YOU CAN develop commercial products with no problem >>whatsoever. I was confused about this too and it's certainly easy >>to be. >> >>Even Linux itself is sold. I have seen Redhat linux distributions >>sell for 50 dollars. This is much more than the price of the >>media. You can go to their site and download all of the current >>stuff for no cost whatsoever, OR you can buy the CD rom from them. >What is to prevent a CD duplicator from making copies of the Linux CD and >selling them for $1.87? Nothing, that's what. And all those Redhat folks >suddently find themselves out of a job. I'm surprised it has not happened >already. What prevents them is value added by Redhat. But you are right, I can make all the copies I want of the CDROM and give them out for free or sell them I suppose. I'll tell you what else is remarkable. You can go the the RedHat web site and download everything on the CDROM for NOTHING whatsoever. What is actually protected by the license, and a lot of people don't understand this, is the OPENNESS of the software. You cannot claim it for yourself, copy protect it or forbid others access in any way. You also cannot take the source code, make a few changes and then claim ownership. >>I'm not sure exactly what the exact rules are here, but the basic >>idea is that it is ok and even encouraged to make lot's of money >>with Linux. That is what is so cool about it. RedHat also sells >>support with each CDROM and they add value to the product and what >>a fine product it is. >It's also OK to give it all away, including the tools you make that incorporate >copyleft technology. > >>One thing I know about Linux is that the number of users is growing >>extremely rapidly. It's actually making an impact and this surprises >>even me, a serious linux fan because I don't think it's really >>a very good choice for less advanced users. The number one problem >>with Linux is fighting this (but it has improved a lot and is getting >>better), the huge software base of Windows, and especially the fear >>factor or group belonging thing that gives windows a big advantage. >I think anyone that tries to develop commercial software for Linux has got a >screw loose. >But I may be wrong. Time will tell. There are people making plenty of money selling commercial Linux software. When you develop your own commercial software, it is NOT protected by GPL and you can do anything you want to protect it or even sell licenses to use it and you are NOT obligated to give out source code. AT our lab we have some of these packages. There is no way we would pay the money we do for "matlab" on linux if we could just download it legally somewhere. So is anyone interested in buying a chess program for linux? - Don
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