At 14:47 10.07.99 +0300, you wrote:
>There exist many companies and private entrepreneurs, that sell support and
>consultation for free software. For example Richard M. Stallman, founder of
>of Free Software Foundationi, codes only free software but he does not
>starve at all. Here is citation from one interview (BYTE July 1986):
>
>(citation starts)
>
>BYTE: A cynic might wonder how you earn your living.
>
>Stallman: From consulting. When I do consulting, I always reserve the right
>to give away what I wrote for the consulting job. Also, I could be making
>my living by mailing copies of the free software that I wrote and some that
Usually, someone is doing the programming, someone else is doing the
consultation. Of course, if you want to do everything yourself....
Lets transfer this idea to other domains:
Q: so you are giving the bread/car away, how do you keep the bakery/car
factory running, then?
A: we will be selling the butter/gasoline
Questions : What are the butter vendors going to do? What if they give
their product away for free? Sell the salami? What happens with the bakery
? What if someone else is doing consultation much better? What, if your
software product is so self-explaining that only very few users need
consultation (we are not necessarily speaking of products as complex and
difficult to grasp for non-technicians as Linux)? Should a product be so
bad that instant and constant support is needed? There is manufacturer of
ISDN hardware here in Germany who is making a lot of revenue via costly
telephone support (DM 3,60/min) and you need it right after unpacking the
product.
Well, some else could eventually make a better software product, but there
is some protection via copyright at least. Of course, if everybody would
give everything away for good to anyone who wants it, we would have a
perfect system, wouldn't we?-) Another problem is the actual and potential
user base. Qualitative research is still a niche market for software
developers and you cannot compare it to a target market using general
purpose utilities (on-screen cd-player etc) or base products like complete
operating systems.
Speaking of the latter, while I have sympathy for open source approaches,
it really took a very long time (and it still takes) until Linux is a
viable alternative to commercial products. There is also a big difference
in coping with technical complexity between a potential user based with
high technical skills and "normal" people like social scientist who simply
want to do their work.
However, one "open strategy" which would make life easier for all involved
would be to pursue open data interfaces, so that existing and future
software (commercial or free) can easily access existing data/projects etc.
(Did I mention XML before?-)
- Thomas
___________________________________________________________________
E. Dijkstra: "The purpose of computing is not answers, but insight"
Dipl.-Psych. Dipl.-Inform. Thomas Muhr
Scientific Software Development - Internet: http://www.atlasti.de
Mailing list (join, leave, etc): www.atlasti.de/joinlist.html
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