loads of people have been asking me and others, on the confusing terms
of muft and mukt software, and then how can you make money with muft
software.
so here is a brief clarification, that you can post around under the
verbatim license, copyright linuxlingam 2003. will also create a
separate document published at linux-delhi's download section, on this
which will be far more comprehensive, when i find some time.
Q: what is 'mukt' software?
Q: what is 'muft' software?
Q: how can i make money with mukt AND muft software?
Q: What is 'mukt' software?
A: 'mukt' is a Hindi word that means 'with freedom.' a software can be
stated to be 'mukt' or 'with freedom' if it grants you, the end-users,
the following freedoms for using it:
1) you are 'mukt' to use it for any purpose.
2) you are 'mukt' to make unlimited copies, share it, distribute it,
and ust give it away to your friends, colleages, and anybody else.
3) you are 'mukt' to study its source code, for WHATEVER reason.
4) you are 'mukt' to even modify the source code, to fix bugs, to
enhance it, or anything you wish to do with the original source code.
the above is 'mukt' software. a special INSTANCE of 'mukt' software is
possible under what is known as COPYLEFT. this further protects the
freedoms of software, and places an interesting condition.
5) should you make any changes to source code, AND publish it, you must
also allow end-users to exercise the conditions 1) to 5) on the original
code as well as your changes. this is to ensure the software and its
growth and evolution remains mukt, and not 'hived' off and exploited by
someone or some organization unethically.
not ALL 'mukt' software is copyleft. for instance, the X11 license
[www.x.org] is not copyleft, but it is mukt. there are several more
software that are published under 'mukt' end-user conditions and
agreements, but which are *not* copyleft.
Q: What is 'muft' software?
A: 'muft' is a Hindi word that means 'free-of-cost'. all mukt software,
by VIRTUE of being 'mukt' become 'muft' as well. for example: the moment
condition 2) is applied.
Q: How can I make 'money' from 'mukt' AND 'muft' software?
A: the underlying philosophy of 'mukt' software is really to address the
issue of the artificial economy of non-mukt software. read the more
comprehensive document that i will prepare on this and other issues
subsequently. meanwhile, go ahead and make money with mukt software.
tonnes of it. HP and IBM make billions out of it. here's how:
1) give the mukt software for muft, obviously. but charge a nominal fee
for the service and trouble you take of making copies, burning the cd.
these days the price for this hovers at about rs 25 per cd. somebody is
being rude and doesn't want to pay you even for this, because he/she
thinks muft means even aluminium cd platter and your bijli used to burn
the cd must be given muft? tell that person to download the cds from the
web, preferably on a 9.8K dial-up connection, and burn the cds
themselves.
2) charge fees for installing (rs 250 to rs 350) mukt systems on
people's PCs.
3) charge fees for service and support.
4) charge fees for developing, modifying, customizing mukt software.
5) charge fees for training, orienting, migrating people.
organizations like the Kompany, kompany.org, and even sun, ibm, hp, and
others, hire people, pay them, get them to make software, and release
the software under a mukt license. so do hollywood special fx companies
(cinepaint.org). so get jobs and consulting projects with these
companies.
bottomline: charge for the calories you burn to create, support, and
deploy mukt software.
****
copyright linuxlingam 2003. verbatim copying, sharing, distributing, of
this text is allowed in any media, so long as this copyright notice is
preserved.
****
_______________________________________________
ilugd mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
