Before you get your flame-thrower suit out, Terry, I am sincerely
interested in having a rational discussion. I am a nice guy, but I do
hold strong beliefs (and opinions), and just because I might disagree
with you doesn't make me a not-nice person.
And, I know you'll label me as a Linux zealot, but this is exactly
the sort of trend that I have been seeing lately; abandoning the free
(as in speech, and beer) alternative that doesn't have the featureset we
want, in favor of the not-free (as in speech, or beer) closed,
proprietary alternative.
Linux doesn't gain from that choice. The hobbyist community doesn't
gain. Society doesn't gain. The only person who gains is the person
selling the thing, and the person buying the thing. The rest of us are
cut out of the loop. In reality, the percentage of people that benefit
is so small in comparison to all of society, that it's easy to say that
-nobody- wins.
There is certainly a better analogy, so I'll make one up.
Imagine that you are interested in getting fish out of a river. I
tell you, I know how to get fish out of the river. I offer you two
alternatives;
1) You give me 1 zorkmid, and I'll give you a fish... or...
2) You give me 10 zorkmids, and I'll teach you how to fish.
Of course, you would choose option 2. Even if you have no desire to
learn how to fish, it makes much more sense, and is infinitely more
profitable, for you to get the fish on your own. Then you can catch
more fish than you can eat, and sell the rest. Pretty soon, you'll be
rolling in more zorkmids than fish. And you have the option to tell
your children how to fish, so that they can get fish from the river, and
be rolling in zorkmids. And the guy who taught you how to fish, he's 10
zorkmids richer, and he can -still- get fish out of the river for
himself. He also has the peace of mind that he has given a gift of
immeasureable value to all of society, all for the paltry price of 10
zorkmids.
This philosophy, in many different other words, is what, I believe,
is one of the founding principles behind Linux development.
It makes no sense for a hardware vendor not to give away software
to work with his hardware; it makes his hardware more valuable to have
interesting software to use with it. And synergistically, if he gives
away the source code, we can all benefit from seeing how it works, and
interested parties who have all kinds of wild ideas about how it should
be changed, will implement these ideas. Suddenly, this free software
has tremendous value, even at the low pricetag of free, because of all
the new wild features it has. And now everybody wants one.
If you don't believe that software can drive hardware purchases, I
point you at Doom. Doom raised the bar for 1-2 megabyte computers, to 8
megabytes. 8 megs was what it took to run Doom well. This drove RAM
sales more than anything else in the computer industry at that time.
Just as 3D games have driven video card sales today. Just an
example...and there are probably better ones.
Just something to consider. I've had this exact argument on the
Mandrake mailing lists, but it was about commercial OSS drivers versus
the free ALSA ones. Their retort was that, "programmers gotta eat to."
And although I unsubscribed out of disgust, my reply was, and is;
If everyone adopted free software, that could be changed by anyone
who put on the programmer hat, then programmer's would constantly have
jobs. Whole new market segments would open up, as small businesses
decided that it was worth a grand or two to have software "just the way
they want it". Guys who were previously doomed to fast food employment,
could pick up a C/C++ book and make ends meet right in their own
neighborhoods. And I think that's a pretty damn good reason to support
free software.
David Jackson
Terry Stockdale wrote:
> No mention of source code release.
> Terry
>
> At 11:39 PM 1/10/2005, you wrote:
>
>> Are they releasing the source code as well?
>> David Jackson
>>
>> Terry Stockdale wrote:
>>
>>> Frey Technologies, developer of the SageTV HTPC/PVR software that I
>>> use, announced at CES on Thursday the release of an OEM Linux
>>> version. Linux version -- yea!. OEM -- getting general reaction of
>>> "why" and "oh no!" from the forums.
>>>
>>> Looks like a case where product development and sales under M$ has
>>> funded creation and release of a commercial version for Linux.
>>> Bravo! Not all companies are taking this step, but little Frey is.
>>>
>>> But, I still want to see the Linux version available for consumer
>>> sales, not just OEM sales.
>>>
>>> They also announced a Media Extender for $99 to work with any TV and
>>> existing SageTV-win and new Sage Media Center (Linux) versions. I'm
>>> not hung up on free software. If it is a good product, and the Win
>>> version is, and if they'll make a consumer release not just the OEM
>>> one, it'll be worth the money.
>>
>> --
>> Terry Stockdale -- Baton Rouge, LA
>> http://www.terrystockdale.com
>
>
>
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