On 6/7/07, Miguel Paraz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > They could be a "Micro ISV" of one person, but these types typically > have to sell proprietary software to make it. An open source business > of selling support needs more manpower and makes less money per person > than a proprietary software business.
I believe, for this case, the term "custom software" is more appropriate. Proprietary software implies that the software is meant to be a solution for a problem of many people or organization. On the other hand, "custom software" is not intended for wide distribution because it only solves a specific problem of a specific client. Most of the software development by these so called "Micro ISVs" are actually custom software. Now, if you're developing custom software for your client, not only can you develop open source software, also free software. As long as of course, you give your client the four essential freedoms of free software [1]. Basically, under this model, the client is not paying for a license of the software, but for the cost of the development of the software. - [1] According to Richard M. Stallman, those four essential feedoms are: Freedom zero is the freedom to run the program as you wish. Freedom one is the freedom to study the source code and change it so that the program does what you wish when you run it. Freedom two is the freedom to help your neighbour; that is, the freedom to distribute exact copies to others, when you wish. Freedom three is the freedom to contribute to your community; that's the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions, when you wish. -- Gideon N. Guillen [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
