Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 14:20:48 +0200
From: Stephan von Krawczynski <skraw@ithnet.com>
To: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>
Cc: jgarzik@pobox.com, lm@bitmover.com, lawrence@the-penguin.otak.com,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM]
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On Fri, 20 Jun 2003 09:33:49 -0700
Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com> wrote:

> All of this is problematic for open source based business models because
> if the product is truly open source then the vendor is standing on much
> shakier ground.  What guarentee does the buyer have that the vendor will
> make it to next year and support the product?  No matter how you slice it,
> it's a much higher risk equation for the buyer than a commercial choice.

Larry, sorry, but this is pure bs.

If a company survives has absolutely _zero_ to do with commercial or
non-commmercial give-away of products. Example: mysql, it's all about service
and none about selling a product.

And to give an example seen from another side:
I have a paper hanging on the wall, writes:

"What do you mean? We are a multi billion dollar company."

It was emailed to me years ago by someone from middle management from Commodore
International as an answer to a my complaint that exactly this management is
producing big bs in designing their product portfolio. 1,5 years later the
company was dead.
There is nothing like a guaranteed life for a company, no matter what it
_sells_. One thing that is heavily underestimated by analysts of all kinds is
that a company has _no_ life of its own. It is run by people, and _these_ are
important, and not the company, be it big or small.

Regards,
Stephan


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