Re: Tim's paradigm shift

On Tue, Jun 29, 2004 at 06:45:21PM +0100, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Matt Asay wrote:
> > So, while I gushed on and on about open distribution, Larry posed
> > a troubling question:  "If that's such a big deal, how is it any
> > better than simply giving the product away for free (no cost) over
> > the Internet?"  I didn't know, and still don't.
> 
> How about because if MySQL wasn't open source, it wouldn't be
> carried by any of the Linux(tm) distros and thus wouldn't be seen as
> a "standard" Linux(tm) component?

MySQL is shareware, and in technical terms, it's what we call a
"steaming pile of dog shit."  It does not do anything good for FLOSS.

> By now, Linux is good simply because it's Linux(tm), and MySQL is
> seen as a part of that.

See above.

> If it was the best, cheapest and only database, it might get away
> with no cost distribution as a 3rd party add-on to Linux, but it
> isn't: PostgreSQL is a very similar competitive product and would
> win on ideological grounds alone if MySQL weren't open source.

The contest is by no means over.

Cheers,
D
-- 
David Fetter [email protected] http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 510 893 6100   mobile: +1 415 235 3778

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