Differences between version 12 and predecessor to the previous major change of LinuxAdvocacy.
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| Newer page: | version 12 | Last edited on Friday, October 17, 2003 9:20:19 am | by JohnMcPherson | Revert |
| Older page: | version 10 | Last edited on Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:51:26 pm | by CraigBox | Revert |
@@ -1,22 +1,22 @@
This article at SlashDot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/03/210219) raised some interesting questions. The article, which was written by a [DSE] salesman[1] in NewZealand apparently, says that people wouldn't buy [Linux]-based computers, partly or mostly because they couldn't understand why the software was [free] (let alone [Free]). To them, obviously the software wasn't even good enough that the author(s) thought they could sell it!
-!So, why is the software free (and Free)?
+!
!So, why is the software free (and Free)?
There are the obvious "freedom to tinker" style arguments that we're familiar with - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
To most people, (and to computer geeks when considering anything other than software) "you get what you pay for". Why is software different?
-__The majority of software is not "shrink-wrapped" commercial software__. There are estimates that only around 10% of all software is written by commercial software vendors for selling off the shelf. The majority of software is written either "in-house" or for contract, for custom solutions. If software is not your core business, and it is merely a tool to help you conduct your business, then it does not affect you much if other people also have access to that software.
+__The majority of software is not "shrink-wrapped" commercial software__. There are estimates that only around 10% of all software is written by commercial software vendors for selling off the shelf. The majority of software is written either "in-house" or for contract, for custom solutions. If software is not your core business, and it is merely a tool to help you conduct your business, then it does not affect you much if other people also have access to that software. However, you can benefit from any improvements other people make to the
software.
While many developers of Free software are volunteers doing it for fun and/or recognition, there are many developers who are employed to help make the software better for their employers, and add features needed in their particular situation.
-For example, the famous
[Apache
] software came about because lots
of system administrators cooperated to improve
the software. They were all trying to make
the software better for their own particular purposes
, and benefitted from
other people
's effort
to do
the same
.
+Example 1: from a recent
[Linux kernel changelog|http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.22
], you can see code contributed from a wide variety
of sources such as [IBM], HewlettPackard, [Debian], RedHat, SuSe, many universities around
the world, Telia (a large European Telecoms company),
the United States military
, [Intel], [AMD], [Samba], DLink, [Dell], [SGI], ...
and dozens of
other organisations and companies around the world. These organisations wouldn
't spend time and/or money on developers if it wasn't in their interests
to help improve
the software
.
+Example 2: the famous [Apache] software came about because lots of system administrators cooperated to improve the software. They were all trying to make the software better for their own particular purposes, and benefitted from other people's effort to do the same. Today, Apache is used on the majority of internet servers on the planet.
-[1] This is actually a local Linux user, sometimes spotted at WLUG meetings, James Hutton.
-!! Links
+!! Links (both in the Wiki, and in general)
OpenSourceSuccessStories
WellThoughtOutReasonsToRunLinux
@@ -37,4 +37,8 @@
http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/RFG-LinuxTCO-vFINAL-Jul2002.pdf
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/brendanscott/papers/freesoftwaretco150702.html
+
+Part of CategoryPolitics
+----
+[1] This is actually a local Linux user, sometimes spotted at WLUG meetings, James Hutton.
