Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM]
From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>
Cc: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>,
       Scott Robert Ladd <coyote@coyotegulch.com>,
       Stephan von Krawczynski <skraw@ithnet.com>, jgarzik@pobox.com,
       lawrence@the-penguin.otak.com,
       Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
In-Reply-To: <20030623153952.GB20103@work.bitmover.com>
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Date: 23 Jun 2003 16:59:02 +0100
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On Llu, 2003-06-23 at 16:39, Larry McVoy wrote:
> Creating software costs money.
> Open source doesn't produce very much money.
> A world in which all software is produced via support contracts doesn't
> look like a world in which there is very much new software.

Thats how most of the world works. In fact open source isn't that
different to the internal economy of many companies. Sooner or later it
becomes more economic to fix the infrastructure as part of fixing the
end users problem. And lets face it - if we started fixing the users
problem a bit more the computing world would improve a hell of a lot.

Making PC's doesn't produce much margin but I'd say Dell have produced
some innovations wouldn't you agree ?

Another problem we seem to have is this "all software" thing. All
software will be C++, all software will be java, all software will be
open source, all software will be .net.

Clearly none of those are true and there will always be cases where the
risk and capital required to get from where you are now to where you
want to be are sufficiently high that gradual evolution won't get you
there in the time you want, and the value of all the open pieces you
could use isnt sufficient to outweigh being able to use copyright to
get your investment back.

One of the reasons copyright exists is so you can make that choice as
author. In theory economics should ensure the right choices then win 8)

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