On Sat, 2002-08-10 at 22:00, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
> > License shipments? "clients version of the OS"?
> > Well, I'm just happy they didn't question the 'Linux company' 401k
> > plan... Sheesh.
>
> The issue here is pretty simple - Linux companies release their ISO's as soon
> as they start selling their distribution (not talking about SuSE - which
> doesn't) and create a very small willingness to go buy a copy, so they don't
> make almost any money from sales. Red Hat sells their Red Hat Advanced server
> for $800, but you can get the parts that needed if you're smart enough to
> know where to look for - freely.
The issue here is that trying to *sell* Free/Open source software is
something that maybe can work for a small company with no aspirations to
become big but can't sustatin a big company in the long run. The idea
that you can somehow make a huge profit by 'delaying' release of the ISO
images has no base in reality IMHO.
I believe Open/Free software has a very bright future ahead of it and I
believe there are several business plans that make it work, just not
these ones.
The whole point of my response to the article was that it's silly to
talk about revenues from *selling* Linux because the whole Linux thing
(and the rest of of the Open/Free software world) isn't driven by 'Sell
Value' but rather by 'Use Value'. If you want to understand how
Open/Free Source works and why economically you have to understand this
last statement and think hard about what it means.
Gilad.
--
Gilad Ben-Yossef <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Code mangler, senior coffee drinker and VP SIGSEGV
Qlusters ltd.
"You got an EMP device in the server room? That is so cool."
-- from a hackers-il thread on paranoia
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