Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263201AbTFTPsW (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:48:22 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263250AbTFTPsV (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:48:21 -0400 Received: from smtp.bitmover.com ([192.132.92.12]:46033 "EHLO smtp.bitmover.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263201AbTFTPsU (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:48:20 -0400 Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 09:02:11 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Lawrence Walton , Larry McVoy , linux-kernel Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM] Message-ID: <20030620160211.GF17563@work.bitmover.com> Mail-Followup-To: Larry McVoy , Lawrence Walton , Larry McVoy , linux-kernel References: <20030619141443.GR29247@fs.tum.de> <20030619165916.GA14404@work.bitmover.com> <20030620001217.G6248@almesberger.net> <20030620120910.3f2cb001.skraw@ithnet.com> <20030620142436.GB14404@work.bitmover.com> <20030620143012.GC14404@work.bitmover.com> <87vfv0bxsb.fsf@sanosuke.troilus.org> <20030620153410.GC17563@work.bitmover.com> <20030620155003.GA2600@the-penguin.otak.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030620155003.GA2600@the-penguin.otak.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam (whitelisted), SpamAssassin (score=0.5, required 7, AWL, CASHCASHCASH, DATE_IN_PAST_06_12) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2037 Lines: 45 On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 08:50:03AM -0700, Lawrence Walton wrote: > I usually never respond to political rants on LK, but has it ever occurred > to you that maybe software creation in all its forms is just > overvalued financially? Yes that has occurred to me. > That Open source is reseting the equilibrium, of the computer industry > to a more sane level? why should any software cost more then say a book? I think open source does drive down the cost of software dramatically. It also drives down the revenue available for development dramatically. That's all great until you stop to wonder why companies are spending so much on software, the open source model seems to suggest that they are all a bunch of crappy coders. Maybe a picture would help. Creating new software: $$$$$$$$$$ Copying existing software: $ Replace dollars with hours of effort, the ratios are the same. The thing that is worrisome, to put it mildly, is that it takes a much larger effort to create new stuff than to copy it. If you manage to kill off the source of the new stuff, what do you copy? Oh, nothing? OK, so now the open source community has to produce the new stuff. Let's have another picture: Revenue from commercial software: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Revenue from open source: $ (at best) So where is the money going to come from to create the new stuff? That's what I've been trying to get people to see. I'm not against open source, I'm against a grayish world that simply can't support the creation of new stuff. That looks bleak and boring. I don't know what people are going to create in the future but I do know that I want to see it. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/