On Jul 18, 2005, at 12:39 PM, Bryan Sant wrote:
There are many ways to make money though. Apple *could* actually open
source their software and make profit off of hardware sales. MS on
the other hand doesn't really have a hardware option. They could do
what Apple is planning on doing and have their software run only on an
x86 system with a super-special BIOS with DRM technology... You could
make your software free (libre) while ensuring that it's not free
(gratis).
Uh, I sort of agreed with you until this paragraph. Apple already
makes most of their profit from hardware sales, but why would they
want to get rid of the software revenue they currently have? Besides
which, they already open source some of their software, mostly that
which was open source to begin with. This is the most sane model, in
my opinion--you open source that which it makes sense to, and keep
the parts proprietary that give you a competitive advantage.
The silliest part, though, is asserting that libre software could be
forced to be non-gratis by a DRM scheme. An effective DRM scheme
kind of kills the libre aspect, doesn't it?
--Levi
.===================================.
| This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. |
| Don't Fear the Penguin. |
| IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net |
`==================================='
