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Date:      Fri, 01 Jun 2001 09:38:24 -0700 (PDT)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: The desktop apathy?  I think not.
Message-ID:  <XFMail.010601093824.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <3B171E17.348C44E5@mail.ptd.net>

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On 01-Jun-01 Thomas M. Sommers wrote:
> "Jeremy C. Reed" wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, 31 May 2001, Thomas M. Sommers wrote:
>> 
>> > Had gcc been under a BSD license, it would have been just as deadly.
>> > Sure, a company could have made proprietary changes to it, and tried to
>> > sell it, but who would buy it?  Or, to put it another way, how much
>> > could they have charged for it and still sell some?  The fate of BSDi
>> > shows how difficult it is to sell proprietary versions of BSD-licensed
>> > software (at least on commodity hardware).
>> 
>> One example is not enough. (Anyways I don't see the fate of BSD/OS.)
> 
> Presumably it (BSD/OS) would not have been sold if it had been more than
> marginally profitable.  (Of course, this is just a presumption; I have
> no inside information.)

On the contrary, you don't buy the part of the company that is losing money. 
You buy the part that is making money.  Your presumptions are rather wrong,
but that's all I'll say.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/

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