Re: Free as in beer

Thus quoth  Reilly Burke on Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 12:03:17PM -0700:
> Chris Knadle wrote elsewhere in this forum:
> 
>     "If you were a developer of software and giving it away for free, 
> imagine getting the complaint that "Why don't you just have a pacakage 
> available for my RedHat 7.1 machine?  What's the deal?  Were you lazy?" 
>   You would likely feel unappreciated and angry, and that the user did 
> not understand the work they were asking for."
> 
> This would be a valid response if someone were giving away their Linux 
> software for free.  But I don't see a lot of free software in Linux. It 
> may be "free of copyright", but it's not cheap.  Somebody's getting my 

While the Free Software Foundation emphasizes freedom of speech, and
developers are perfectly justified in asking money for their effort, most
of what we call Linux is also free as in free beer for you to download. 

Yes, there is also a good amount of commercial software for Linux. Some of 
this is closed source and available only in binary form, but still being 
offered to you without charge. 

> money. I'm paying a whole lot to support Linux and if I run into sloppy 

I've worked in customer support, and surely, good support does not come 
cheap. (if the developers finished their jobs hastily, it meant overtime for
the support crew and annoyance for the customer, if the quality was good, 
we would receive a fat sum without performing any actual work). 
Methinks it's a good idea to separate the price paid for the software from 
the price to be paid for support. 

> or thoughtless development, I want to be able to publicize my beefs 
> about poor quality.

The main idea is: 'Don't ask what Linux can do for you, but ask what 
you can do for Linux.'. If you find a bug, you are encouraged to fix it
and the author may be pleased to receive your fix so that all may benefit. 

Kind regards,


Daniel von Asmuth

-- 
	wat heb je nodig bij een uitzichtloos leven? euthanasie?
	nee, windows.
	van microsoft?
	nee, van glas.