Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 19:25:55 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: mwm@mired.org (Mike Meyer) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), dan@langille.org, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Stallman now claims authorship of Linux Message-ID: <200104231926.MAA07119@usr08.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <15073.19371.99471.534039@guru.mired.org> from "Mike Meyer" at Apr 21, 2001 03:58:19 AM
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> > > Yup. Their lack of vision is going to drive them bankrupt. > > How would a "visionary company" fund R&D, IYHO? > > Depends on the software they're trying to produce. I've already > described a number of different business models for recovering R&D > costs, including selling services and improving staff efficiency. > > Focusing on one particular business model - whether it's > productization or improved efficiency - leads to idiotic claims like > "The GPL will reduce programmers to penury." I don't see a lot of good GPL'ed code being funded out there. I see a _lot_ of BSD based businesses springing up. Further, I see a lot of good R&D in BSD based systems, much of which ends up being given back to the community, since the people doing the work can distinguish "tactical" and "strategic". Unfortunately, the GPL model means I _must_ give my source code out, even if it happens to be for something strategic. I think people starting a new company will not start it with GPL'ed code, if they are smart, unless the code they are using happens to be entirely tactical (e.g. Whistle Communications ran SAMBA to provide SMB services, which was an entirely tactical use of the code: no intellectual property to protect, there). I have also seen companies move away from Linux and toward FreeBSD for embedded systems, particularly when there is a proprietary driver or some other performance issue at stake. For example, FreeBSD can run Gigabit networking at speed, but Linux has problems keeping up with 100Mbit in promiscuous mode just doing simple network monitoring. Really, you need to consider your exit strategy when starting a new business. For a Linux based product, the strategy is almost completely limited to IPO, and not acquisition. That's just bad business planning. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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