From: spedpr@thor.cf.ac.uk (Paul Richards)
Date: 25 Mar 92 18:45:05 GMT
However, the sentiments of many people working on Linux are
understandably quite different. They get no financial benefits out of
Linux and are working on it for fun and because it's a worthwhile
project. If all you intend to do is provide a service and make a little
money on the side then that's in this spirit. However, when you say
things like, "can I make a living out of this" and the such like then
their reaction is, not surprisingly, "why should I give my free time so
that someone else can get rich". This is basically exploitation of others
good intentions.
Hmm... well, my reaction is that it doesn't make any difference if
someone tries to make a buck off of Linux, since the GPL states that
when something is distributed under the GPL, (1) the GPL must included
as part of the distribution, in an obvious place, and (2) either the
source must be included or a pointer to a place where the source can be
made freely available. So anyone who gets pays $1000 for Linux will be
immediately treated to the obvious fact that they can give it away to
anybody they want. I find it very doubtful that anyone would be able to
"make a living out of this" under these circumstances.
Also, if there are really stupid people out there paying $1000/copy for
Linux, you can be sure that I and several other people will immediately
go out there and offer to sell copies of Linux for $500/copy, and then
$100/copy, and then $20/copy..... and pretty soon the free market will
take care of driving the price to "natural" levels.
I really don't see the big deal and fuss.... the GPL is designed so no
one will be able to make outrageous amounts of money over the mere
distribution of the software. Support? That's a different matter; but
if you are selling support, (like Cygnus), you need to put in a lot more
effort yourself --- it's not like you're just mooching off the efforts
of other people.
- Ted
