Re: [ox-en] Code theft or liberalisation?
- From: Rob Myers <robmyers mac.com>
- Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 12:02:38 +0000
On 9 Dec 2004, at 11:39, Soenke Zehle wrote:
The question that has to be asked is whether a paid-for and free
business model can co-exist in the open source world. I am sure there
are projects that work successfully on this model but none that I can
think of offhand. You are most probably saying hey what about Red Hat,
but you can download and compile RHEL yourself, such as done by the
White Box Linux project.
This is the classic confusion of freedom and cost. Apache, Red Hat,
Apple, IBM and others all make money off of Free software.
Yellow Dog Linux is a good example of a project that build on Red Hat's
work with their PowerPC Linux, and returns work to the community, with
YUM.
What doesn't work, as this case shows very clearly, is trying to set up
an Open Source buzz around a project that a company only has a
proprietary profit model for. Dual licensing is not a long-term viable
option, and as an employee or investor I'd steer clear of any company
that uses it.
- Rob.
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