On Tue, 02 Feb 93 15:00:38 CST, "Steven D Ourada" <sourada@IASTATE.EDU> wrote: > > > o Are the GPL's ends (freely copyable + full source availability + > > "virus" nature) the same as those needed by a FSB? > > Full source availabilty is not necessarily something a FSB would want. > Although it could be considered a conflict of interest (in the sense > used in another question below), a FSB could make more money on support if > it could effectively demand that customers pay them for any changes > made to the software. Of course, by distributing the source, they can benefit > from the changes made by others. The problem with not distributing source is that if the author gets bored, or goes out of business, or dies, or is simply unwilling to make a change, the user is hosed. Also, typically, free software comes with no warranty. If the user wishes a warranty, they must purchase it from the author. It sounds like this software is only partially free; you have the freedom to copy the software but not to change it. > It probably depends on the intended market: people using a program > as a tool for other work (say a secretary using a word processor) wouldn't > care to have source, and wouldn't change it if they could; 'hacker types' > who want to customize and fix programs they use would want source. An > FSB should take this into account when deciding whether or not to distribute > source. It's the end-users who contract with the programmers to make the changes they want. Right now, end-users are not accustomed to thinking that they could have the features they want in a program simply by paying to have them developed. They are used to sighing when they run across an annoying bug, and cursing when they run across a fatal bug. I think we have an education issue here; we need to let users know that they want the source not so they can change it themselves, but so that they can get bugs fixed that are interfering with their work. And we should not assume that end-users are not programmers; I have a number of programs that I simply want to work. I am an end-user for those programs. The text editor I am using right now, for example, I wrote myself. It works the way I want it to. Even though I wrote it in the first place, I have zero desire to hack at it. I am now an end-user for my own program! -- -russ <nelson@crynwr.com> What canst *thou* say? Crynwr Software Crynwr Software sells packet driver support. 11 Grant St. 315-268-1925 Voice | LPF member - ask me about Potsdam, NY 13676 315-268-9201 FAX | the harm software patents do.