Re: price of software [was Re: [ox-en] Book project]
- From: Russell McOrmond <russell flora.ca>
- Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:46:16 -0500 (EST)
On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Graham Seaman wrote:
... to my mind something doesn't become 'commercial' just because it's
used in a commercial context. I think of something commercial as something
that's sold to me.
Are services sold to you, or are only products capable of being sold to
you? Is there no such thing as commercial services, just commercial
products?
What do you call it when you hire a chef to cater an event, where you
provide the food and the recipes aren't proprietary? Is that chef not
working for you through a commercial arrangement?
The recipes and food are neither commercial nor non-commercial in
themselves, but your relationship with the chef in this case is very much
commercial.
It is also not 'gratis', as you would find out if you decided not to pay
the chef -- (s)he would successfully sue you for breach of your commercial
contractual arrangement.
If I look it up http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=commercial there
are many definitions.
Some which apply always to my own commercial Free Software services (i.e.
"Engaged in commerce: a commercial trucker", and "Involved in work that is
intended for the mass market: a commercial artist.").
Some definitions that apply 'often' (i.e. "Having profit as a chief aim: a
commercial book, not a scholarly tome.").
Some definitions that never apply in my own business (i.e. "Sponsored by
an advertiser or supported by advertising: commercial television." , and
"Of, relating to, or being goods, often unrefined, produced and
distributed in large quantities for use by industry.")
If you go through all the business models that are possible with FLOSS,
you will find that in some cases FLOSS is itself advertising for some
other value-add service or product, so other meanings of commercial can
apply to FLOSS in other circumstances.
Do you think that for most users 'commercial software' means
something like the opposite of 'home software'?
I think they take it as being the opposite of 'software from the
volunteer sector' (IE: where the software isn't provided via a business
arrangement, but some form of philanthropy - I'm avoiding the term
'gratis' as that is part of our language confusion ;-).
FLOSS is sometimes philanthropy, as is some proprietary software. That
isn't where the business of FLOSS comes in, which is based on suppliers of
software services.
Oracle versus Access, or something like that? I've never come across
that.
I have had potential customers not hire me because a Software
Manufacturing reseller was able to convince them that what I was providing
was 'freeware' or 'shareware', and that there wasn't any commercial
support available. Even though I was offering commercial support for
FLOSS, the customer got duped by deliberately confusing language.
I believe that the language used can make or break our ability to widen
the general public (both commercial and non-commercial) adoption of Free
Software.
I am a commercial supplier of software services -- offering services
based (almost only - getting better every day) on FLOSS software. The
very existance of my company should be proof that commercial software is
not the same as proprietary software.
Hang on, you just wrote 'I am a commercial supplier of software
services - offering services based on Free/Libre software..'. You
didn't write 'based on commercial software' (which to my ears would
either be bizarre, or mean 'proprietary software').
FLOSS is itself neither commercial nor non-commercial. Proprietary
software is itself neither commercial nor non-commercial. Under what
conditions the software is supplied to you is what makes it commercial
software or not.
The question of FLOSS vs Proprietary is independent of whether it is
commercial or not. That is a 2-dimensional question, not one dimensional
one.
Anyway, the software we use is gratis and the labour we put into
modifying or installing it isn't.
I think we may end up having to remain confused by each others language
;-)
The software you are using and/or creating as a value-add may be
royalty-free, but I don't see how it is gratis. If they don't pay you,
they don't get the software services you are offering. This doesn't sound
anything like gratis to me, whether it is a software service that is
royalty-free or a software product paid for entirely by royalties.
Are you disagreeing with the dictionary here? I try to use this to try
to have as much of a 'common understanding' of terminology as possible.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gratis&db=*
"gratis
\Gra"tis\, adv. [L., contr. fr. gratiis out of favor or kindness, without
recompense, for nothing, fr. gratia favor. See Grace.] For nothing;
without fee or recompense; freely; gratuitously."
(and many more versions out of all dictionaries, all of which say the same
thing, and none of which seem to relate to what you are saying).
Graham
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses,
VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen
and not a third party. -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/