RE: [linux-audio-user] License free Linux ??

New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Other groups

Subject: RE: [linux-audio-user] License free Linux ??
From: Mark Knecht (mknecht_AT_controlnet.com)
Date: Fri Dec 05 2003 - 00:25:00 EET


>
> I'm thinking some not very nice thoughts about Luminousity right now...
>
> Best,
>
> == dp

Dave,
   Me too, but not too many. Instead, embrace the idea.

   I'm sure we've all thought about and raised these concerns at different
times. I know I was talking up ways to work around this a year ago on the
Ardour lists. I'm convinced there are ways to do it and it's going to take
people doing things like what is on Ebay to get the group moving.

   Maybe it's just me reacting wrong to what I've read, but none the less
some of this conversation seems like people don't want to really accept the
financial model that Open Source predominately promotes - that effectively
to the end user the software is free, as in no money, and that the only way
people make money in and around Open Source are 1) Selling CDs, 2) Providing
support or 3) licensing specifically by getting a manufacturer of hardware
to embed the program in their design. This guy is doing #1, or trying to, so
what's wrong with that?

   While I do NOT like the way this person is promoting his product it
*seems* _legal_ on the surface of it, and not that different from buying a
book from Sams that has a Samba CD in it. Maybe Sams provides more support,
or better info, but maybe this guy on Ebay has written some user's guide or
something that adds value also. We don't know yet. (Anyone wanna buy a copy
and find out?) I'm sure the Samba guys, or the kernel guys, or the XFree86
guys, at one time or another, have looked at what's happened with Open
Source and thought 'what if...', but the answer to that question is
generally that it wouldn't have been as big.

   Open Source is just different. I think the community just needs to wake
up to this. When it does, and when it decides it *wants* the developers to
make some money, then I'm convinced there are ways for all of us to make
money for the developers, and that will be good for all of us. (Even if that
is bad sentence structure...) ;-)

- Mark


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Other groups

This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Fri Dec 05 2003 - 00:29:08 EET