On Sat, 2005-06-04 at 11:04 -0400, Chad Smith wrote:
>   I mean, we're giving 
> away the software, which took literally *hundreds* if not *thousands* of 
> man-hours, why shouldn't he expect the CD for free, too?

Duh, Sun has donated most of the engineering time because I guess they
believe its in their overall commercial interest to do so. Community
members have donated their time because they want to. That does not mean
it reasonable to expect someone (who?) to give media away for free. This
might not have understood and we need to be reasonable in communicating
the bottom line but its definitely not reaonable for people to expect
everything associated with OSS to be free. Indeed I believe that we need
commercial enterprise to sustain FLOSS projects. I think the idea that
everything should be not for profit or given as charity is misguided.

<SNIP a stack of rant>

> You don't want to send the guy a CD - then don't.  But don't get all 
> bent out of shape about it.  

Chad, the person who seems to be getting most bent out of shape about
this is you. Do you have to write an essay to convey simple ideas? In
the words of one of the Brontes, "If I had a bit more time it would have
been shorter". Think about it.

-- 
Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ZMSL


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