hi Sandip ,
> I am still a bit confused with the whole point of this discussion. We all
> want serious business to be done with Linux. Is it only that organisations
> are only expected to USE Linux and rather not make any money out of it?
mr> The point of discussion is not that you should not make money out of
Linux.It is about "not calling freesoftware as commercial is problematic".
There is no problem at all making money out of Freesoftware.Freedom is not
just about money.......it is more than that..........
The word Freedom actually is creating a lot of confusion as people tend to
think in terms of money..........
Freedom as in GPL means the liberty to go thro',.modify ,redistribute the
Freesoftware .Please read the Freedom Concepts and GPL properly..
> What about companies like IBM, SGI which sell 'total Linux' systems and
> make money based on it?
> Or is it something else? Is it that people don't want such companies(like
> RedHat) to grow too rich, or maybe too influential to change the direction
> of the Linux movement.
mr>There is no problem with any of these selling total linux systems!!!!
But the problem arises when Proprietary software is called commercial and
freesoftware is called non-commercial.Freesoftware is fully commercial and if
somebody creates a wrong opinion or even implies that freesoftware is not
commercial then less people tend to use it and the freedom movement
dies.........and if it so happens than the propreitary software again takes
over.Then what will happen??
Linus doesn't distingush between commercial and properitary and that is the
problem!!!!
He doesn't call freesoftware as commercial which creates the wrong notion and
so he is killing it.
There is a paradox in what he does.............
1.He GPLed linux which means that it is freesoftware.
2.He calls proprietary as commercial and doesn't call Freesoftware as
commercial.
3.Does this mean that he never wanted Linux to be used as commercial
software.??(which I guess is not correct as Linus and even you and I want it
to be commercialized.)So is Linux not freesoftware??(this is again wrong as
Linux was GPLed by him).So what is he saying??Is he confused??or Is it
something else??
If confusion is not the reason,than the other reason appears to be that
--------to make linux popular,Linus
GPLed it which gave a boost to Linux,but personally he doesn't like following
GPL .Secondly,as GNU has become almost synonymous with GPL and freesoftware
,he feels a threat .
Infact he himself says -------
" There are also a few technical advantages going for Linux: it's a
clean re-implementation that doesn't have any historical baggage,
and the fact that there is one person who everybody agrees is in
charge (me) allows me to do more radical decisions than most other
projects can allow.
For example,I can single-handedly decide that something is badly
done, and re-do it completely even if it breaks lots of old code.
It takes a while to recover from those kinds of decisions, but it
makes for a better end result: if something is broken it gets fixed
faster."
Doesn't this sound like Bill Gates talk??Yeah,the difference is that Gates
used his own chaps to do whatever he wanted while Linus uses the world to do
whatever he wants!! Now tell me if he encourages proprietary software and it
becomes a major chunk of Linux system,then won't you find him asking you
"Where do you want to do today??" rather than allowing you to ask yourself
"where do I want to go today??"(FREED OM).
If he wanted his own way,he shouldn't have GPLed Linux(then linux wouldn't
have been so popular)........and if he has GPLed Linux he should stick to it
and stop playing double games.
May be he start with a good concept /cause but is now losing his way seeing
the monopolictic(is such a word exists) glitter of proprietary stuff.
Mridul.
>
>
> - A very confused Sandip
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Sandip Bhattacharya
> DSF Internet Services
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ICQ: 38380743
>
> ---- Original Message -----
> From: Raju Mathur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 10:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [linux-delhi] gnu website and linux.com
>
> > Hi Babu,
> >
> > I think Linus is just using the words ``commercial'' and
> > ``proprietary'' interchangeably, as he is entitled to. I'm sure Linus
> > understands the concept of freedom in free software as well as the
> > next person.
> >
> > One of the most important things about the free software movement is
> > freedom of choice. In my humble opinion we should let RedHat sell its
> > products (proprietary or free) at whatever price they want, and for
> > those of us who're uncomfortable with that, why, just use Debian! I
> > strongly oppose any move to marginalise Linus or RedHat just because
> > they happen to be more flexible than RMS in their stand towards
> > commercial/proprietary software.
> >
> > Having said all that, I still voted for RMS in the Linux.com poll :-)
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > -- Raju
> >
> > >>>>> "Babu" == M P Anand Babu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> > Babu> Hi Please Visit http://tlug.linux.or.jp/linus.html before
> > Babu> you decide ur vote
> >
> > Babu> Linus encourages development of proprietary software
> > Babu> something that RMS or anybody would frown upon. He (Linus)
> > Babu> is very much confused between "Commercial" software and
> > Babu> "proprietary" software. He didn't understand that a Free
> > Babu> software is completely commercial. If his support for RedHat
> >
> > Babu> continues then nobody can save us tomorrow. RedHat is using
> > Babu> Free software as a base to sell proprietary software. This
> > Babu> is too much dangerous. MS seems to be much better than RH
> > Babu> now. He atleast used his own proprietary software to play
> > Babu> monopoly. So decide ur future
> >
> > Babu> regards ab
> >
> > The mailing list archives are available at
> > http://lists.linux-india.org/cgi-bin/wilma/linux-delhi/
> >
>
> The mailing list archives are available at
> http://lists.linux-india.org/cgi-bin/wilma/linux-delhi/
The mailing list archives are available at
http://lists.linux-india.org/cgi-bin/wilma/linux-delhi/
