On 09/27/2012 08:52 AM, Vernooij, CP - SPLXM wrote:
"Shmuel Metz , Seymour J." <shmuel+...@patriot.net> wrote in message
news:<20120927125900.3d407f58...@smtp.patriot.net>...
In <5063f617.80...@bremultibank.com.pl>, on 09/27/2012
at 08:45 AM, "R.S." <r.skoru...@bremultibank.com.pl> said:
Excuse me, what is misleading? It's obviousm that .NET framework
work on Windows operating system and the windows is not free of
charge. However you can have Windows (for money) and get the
framework with no additional cost. That means it's FREE OF CHARGE.
Shouting won't make it true. If you have to pay money in order to get
it then it is not free. You've admitted that you have top pay money to
get it, at least legally.
--
That way, Linux is not free, you have to buy a PC first, but before you
can use a PC, you have to buy a house, buy a license from the
electricity company etc. etc.
If you don't have to pay to get a product, it is free of charge,
regardless of whether you paid for other things before or not, and to
the same company or not.
Kees.
Whenever one compares costs, there has to be agreement on the context
and the starting point - whether one is talking about Total Cost of
Ownership or just incremental costs. Although TCO considerations are
important for long term planning, many decisions in the short term are
influenced by incremental costs. If one solution requires data center
space and environmental support you don't already have available, that
is a very significant incremental cost. If a solution requires server
hardware and and base Operating system licenses you don't already have,
that is an incremental cost. If an approach requires significantly more
support personnel costs than another, that is an incremental cost. If
you already have personnel, data center, environmental support, and
server hardware sitting available, then best incremental cost may depend
on total additional cost of base Operating Systems and other required
software licenses. But, if there are other constraints beyond your
control that force the choice of base Operating System or if you have
idle, fully-paid Operating System licenses available, then that removes
that cost from the design decisions, even though that may be significant
and TCO might be sub-optimal.
So in some contexts it may make sense to describe software as free,
because it has zero incremental costs at a specific time at a specific
installation, but in other contexts TCO becomes more important.
--
Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR jcew...@acm.org
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