Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM]
From: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>
To: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>
Cc: Stephan von Krawczynski <skraw@ithnet.com>, jgarzik@pobox.com,
       lawrence@the-penguin.otak.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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On Mon, 2003-06-23 at 15:09, Larry McVoy wrote:
> The difference is that I can charge a price for the word processor which
> gives me enough profit to build the spread sheet application. 

...and when that and the rest of the suite are complete, what next? You
only postponed the end, surely?

>  If you are trying to do the same thing but your app is GPLed, you can
> forget about it. The market won't pay $300 for something they can
> download for free.

This is absolutely true -- but why is it relevant and to whom? 

OK, perhaps I see why it makes _vendors_ uneasy, but the _consumer_
doesn't lose out, and it's the consumer's money which drives the trend. 

There will always be companies around to provide whatever needs the
consumer is willing to pay for.

It may turn out that tomorrow's consumer is not willing to pay up-front
for software, at least _commodity_ software.

Markets come and markets go -- life will go on, as it always does. 

-- 
dwmw2

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