El lun, 24-05-2010 a las 23:31 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull escribió: > simo writes: > > > The business advantages are 2 and are unique to a business that not only > > provides code availability but is also very good at community > > building. > > You mean like Aladdin Software of the 90s? Ghostscript was a pretty > tight community back when I needed them. Not just Peter, but lots of > people. And I don't recall anybody complaining about the Aladdin > license, except RMS; the pressure for converting the license to GPL > came much later. > > There's no question that a firm that specializes in open source can > leverage that specialization in community building, but don't try to > tell me that the moral high ground has nothing to do with that. > > > Merely releasing (dumping) some piece of software with a Free License, > > does not magically create a development community. Without a community > > it is basically just a marketing stunt. > > You're right. How about that Eclipse community, then? What was the > name of the open source business that fostered that one? ;-) > > I really don't think it's a good idea to underestimate what IBM, HP, > or Oracle can do in terms of building community, if that seems like a > good idea to them. > > So we're back where we started. Open source seems like a good focus, > but it's no better than any other focus. And it restricts the ways > you can generate revenue, compared to your direct competitors who have > chosen a different focus. The available tool to leverage that OS might restrict the ways to generate revenue in some markets (some other markets have already been commoditized to the point when there is no licensing fees, only maintenance ones), but it also opens new ways to spread the product (packaging, downloads, etc.) and significantly lowers entrance barriers. At least for me, I'll always test first Free Software solutions than proprietary ones. This has a value too. I guess that the balance between loss of grip on the customer and better/cheaper distribution and marketing is what mandates positioning in the market. Regards Santiago > restriction in a lasting way seems to be the social good of open > source, and your public commitment to it.