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Re: Free software companies and stock options



Hi Harveer,

Some basic misconceptions here...

>>>>> "Harveer" == Harveer S <lambysingh@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

    Harveer> At 10:32 AM 9/18/00, Robin wrote:
    >> How do you make money out of FREE software ? From support ?
    >> ...it doesn't pay well enough especially in a poor nation like
    >> india. If you

    Harveer> Fully agreed.

Support pays in India.  People will be even more willing to pay for
support when their pockets aren't already to let after buying
expensive software.

    >> sell it then you need to hire n number of lawers to ensure that
    >> all you're linking to is lgpled not gpled.

    Harveer> As I read on some list (may be this or the
    Harveer> freedev@topica), the main problem with the GPL is that it
    Harveer> wants all the software to be "free". If you use even a
    Harveer> bit of the GPL'd code, you have to GPL all of your code.
    Harveer> So, that comes round to the point that has already been
    Harveer> made on this list : It is not feasible to participate in
    Harveer> Free software movement without having a kind of
    Harveer> guaranteed and decent source of income - from developing
    Harveer> commercial software, providing support, teaching - it
    Harveer> does not matter, but having the bucks with you does.

Sure, all the free software movement is saying is that you can make
money from free software, only not by restricting its distribution.
There are people who're willing to pay for free software development
(or haven't you seen sites like cosource.com recently?)  And we really
have to move from the product-oriented (industrial) to the
support-oriented (service) mindset.

    >> If you use kdevelop then you gotta get a commercial licence for
    >> it I think ( please correct me if i'm wrong). Is there any
    >> commercial developer's howto for linux ? If not is this list
    >> interested in helping draft one ?
    >> 
    >> as for street performer and other so called models - I don't
    >> think that would work in india.Try to push a gpl clause on a
    >> client and see if he'll bite...he'll probably show you the door
    >> the minute you bring up the idea...something on the lines of..
    >> you : "Dear Mr X I'll develop the package for you , but you
    >> have to give it to your competitor for free ..."
    >> 
    >> Mr X : "Thank you for your time and GET LOST you nutcase !!"

    Harveer> Yeah, considering the fact that almost anything that goes
    Harveer> to increase the $'s is accepted as vaild in corporate
    Harveer> scenario... So, I think that no company will want his
    Harveer> competitor to have the software which it paid to get
    Harveer> developed, for free. After all, it is a part of their
    Harveer> business, and that matters a lot !!

Uh, not true.  All that means is that companies will try to gain
competitive advantages from support and not from products.  The same
thing happened in the hardware market: since all Intel boxen are more
or less alike, box manufacturers have to lure people by other means,
e.g. longer warranties, better software, etc.  Why do people buy boxes
from named vendors rather than from the grey market?  Not because the
named vendors make better or faster or cheaper boxes, but because
their support is reliable.  The RISC market is dying precisely because
proprietary products must lose out eventually to open technologies.

Similarly, when all software becomes more or less alike (i.e. free
software rules), buyers will discriminate between vendors on the
quality and quantum of support they offer.

The signs of this starting to happen are already all around you.  MS
plans to have 50% of its revenue coming from support and services in a
few years.  The primary reason for Compaq buying over Digital was
because they wanted Digital's large field support staff, not
particularly their technologies.  Nearly every hardware vendor and
most software vendors in the world today are focusing on services and
support as their next big push.  Products just don't cut it any more.

To sum up, products will not bring revenue in the long term --
services will.  And Linux and GNU are ideal platforms for both the
service company and the user, since they free you from being chained
to one specific organisation to get support from.

Regards,

-- Raju

    >> [snip]