> > But the second more important question was (in my words): > > Why should I buy a Wine distribution from you? > > > > If you are forced to contribute back everything I can just do: > > > > cvs update ; ./configure ; make install > > > > What I and other have been trying to say is that some business > > models like consulting business makes sense with a LGPL:ed Wine > > but others like Transgaming:s might not. Read what Gavriel wrote > > in his first(?) reply again. > > > I have been avoiding this debate although reading it closely. > However i > thought i would step up to the plate on this one, as someone whose > salary depends on Jeremy's vision. > > The simple of it is.. you, Patrik, would not buy a Wine distribution > form us. Why would you? You are a developer, and a wine > developer on top > of that. If your critical app crashes you can just hack on > the code and > make it work. In fact we dont really expect anyone on this > list to buy a > Wine distribution from us.
Yes, that is pretty obvious. > However if a company unfamiliar > with Wine, or > even linux wants to get a critical app working on Linux using > Wine they > have to choose. The could hire a developer and have that person figure > out wine and do the work, or buy a distribution of Wine supported by > proven Wine developers. > > It is these sorts of people and companies that we want to target. And > financially Patrik's money for his license or even the money form all > the wine developers would be nearly insignificant compared to a 100+ > seat site license. The problem is not that I or the other Wine developers don't pay. The problem is that the company needing a 100+ seat license runs Red Hat, SuSE or Mandrake or some other Linux distribution. They turn to their respective distributor say Red Hat and say that they are prepared to pay $XXX per year for a better supported Wine. Red Hat in turn hires me (or some other on this list) to do this and I do: cvs update ; ./configure ; make install That is your problem. Sure Red Hat might write a contract with you instead but then perhaps they consider you a competitor and hire me instead or perhaps they believe I'm better or whatever. > As a developer who has worked on far too many > proprietary Wine trees and seen all the fights the Jeremy has gone > through. I want to be assured that i can give my code back to the wine > community. Assurance about some things can be given but everything has a price. Will you pay it? Will it really do what you expect it does?
