[MLUG] licenses and choices

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007, Jonathan King wrote:

> I'm actually fine with this, as well. I just pointed it out because 
> although this seems like a pretty cool product, it will end up costing 
> you, and this (reasonably) has some effect on my enthusiasm. Or, to put 
> it another way, Google Docs now has a pretty neato data import feature, 
> and this costs me nothing, so I'm more likely to play with it. It's 
> clear that kirix is going to be able to do a lot more, but it's not yet 
> completely clear to me how much of this I'll be doing, so there you go.

The trick with "free as in beer" software is that you still have lock-in 
problems.  This is why Microsoft doesn't really mind piracy in the third 
world (despite what they might say for self-protective legal reasons): 
It helps them a lot.

If software is very easy to learn, I don't mind the licensing too much. 
I use Google and Google Maps all the time even though they are 
proprietary.  What have I got to lose?  I'm not spending a lot of my time 
learning them and there isn't an open-source replacement that I know of. 
They are likely to stay free (as in beer) forever because Google makes 
more money that way than by selling access.

Mike


> On 9/25/07, Rick <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> > Well, while I have the linux bigot's love of open source projects, I'm
> > pragmatic enough to understand that companies don't do things for some
> > crazy altruistic reason. They do things to make money. In some
> > instances, open source helps companies do that (regardless of MS'
> > "facts" to the contrary). But if a company wants to write software and
> > put it under something other than the GPL, more power to them. My only
> > issue is when said company is attempting to unethically benefit from the
> > hard work of others.
> >
> > I'm pretty ok with a company making money off of me as long as they
> > provide me with something that I desire for a reasonable fee.

_______________________________________________
members mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/members