Re: Free Software Company

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Sep 13, 2000 at 08:13:17AM +0530, Yogesh Ginde wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, Arun Sharma wrote:
> > 
> > [1] I refuse to accept GPL'ed software as paid software. The only people
> >     who pay for software that's free are fools. They pay for support.
> > 
> 
> Not really. There are some good reasons for buying GPL'ed software and
> support for it. The documentation that comes with most free software needs
> a lot to be desired. Ofcourse, if one searches long enough on the Net,
> almost any problem regarding the software can be solved. But many users
> including corporates may not have the time, inclination or sometimes even
> resources to do so. By paying for support they can atleast ensure that any
> teething problems they have with the software will be solved. I'm sure
> a lot of people give up using free software because they are not able to
> operate it properly (because of inadequate documentation, or maybe because
> it differs significantly from the proprietary software they are migrating
> from). If these people want to pay someone to help them out, that does not
> mean that they are "fools". They may simply be "technically
> challenged". Another compelling reason to buy free software is that you
> can get it on CD/DVD etc which saves a lot of time and money which would
> be required to download the software. For instance, SuSE 6.4 costs
> Rs. 1800 and comes on 6 CDs full of software. Are people who buy a Linux
> distro fools too?

You're either paying for documentation or burning a CD. You're not 
paying for _software_. In cases where you choose to pay because of
ideological reasons, you're "donating money" and not paying for
software.

	-Arun