🚀 go-pugleaf

   >If the consumer (you for example) demands it, it will happen. Thats what the
   >market is all about. ;)

   Market? With FREE software? Please, explain what the 'market' has to do with
   free software? It's creators are not affected by the market, they make what
   they see fit. 

Sure.  Most of the work done at Cygnus has been done because someone paid
us to do it.  That sounds like a market drive to me.  This work is all
free, because that also has been a market demand.  Our customers want
support for various features, and in some cases, they specifically want it
available in releases that everyone can get.  

Almost every new CPU to come out in the last few years has a port of GCC to
that chip.  In many cases, the port was funded by either the designers or
the manufacturers of the chip.  It's seen as a competitive requirement
these day.  "GCC doesn't support the FOO?  What good is it?"  This logic
doesn't completely hold water, especially in the smaller micro-controller
worlds (gcc on the 8051?  ouch!).  But in the higher-end CPU's (>=32bit),
there definitely is a market drive for gcc.

It's true that the applications market for free software is low (almost
non-existent).  The reasons for this have been hashed out many times
before, so I won't go into them now.  But I think it's likely that we'll
start to see changes here.  Users are asking for freedom, and companies
that provide the source code are providing the highest level of freedom
that their customers demand.

Free software is a relative newcomer to the marketplace.  Scarcity
economics has been the rule of the day, because up until recently creating
a product has meant a per-unit actual cost (raw materials, labor time,
etc).  

Information (and software is in this realm) has different economics.  How
much does this program cost?  $10 for the tape that it is on?  $50 for the
tape and the time needed to package it?  $10000 for the time needed to
develop the software that it contains?  

The world is just now recognizing that the old ways of dealing with
physical commodities don't translate wonderfully for informational
commodities.  

   Or do you mean that consumers start demanding companies to write free software?
   Please convince USL not to sue UCB and I will believe you.

If you think that this specific single example will prove or disprove the
proposition that customers are demanding software freedom, I encourage you
to open your horizons.  

  david d 'zoo' zuhn |    
    cygnus support   |    And if you're never lost, how can you be found?     
    zoo@cygnus.com   |