Letter
To The Editor: Open
Source Business Model
In
the Open Sources Business Model article I
wrote in the April 20 issue of Opinions, about Open Source and
how its business model could change over time.
Subscriber Pete Prodoehl
sent us some very valid comments, speaking more from the point of
view of Richard Stallman and the Free Software idea than from that
of pricing and economics.
Amy,
Remember
that "free" has multiple meanings here. I can get a Linux
distro for a vendor and I am generally "free" to alter it
in any way I please,
as long as I adhere to the licensing restrictions, which should be
the GPL. The "free" is the freedom to see, and changed the
system, code, etc. If I buy Windows from Microsoft I am not
"free" to make changes to it. It's a black box that I'm
allows to interact with, to a certain degree, but there are definite
hard limits as to how "freely" you can change
things. Free isn't all about dollar amounts...
Pete,
You
are correct, of course. I’m
addressing this from a business model perspective, but you’re
thinking of it from a customer perspective, which could have
economic implications. It’s
a good reminder.
Amy
As always, we solicit readers’
comments. Write to Amy Wohl
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