🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 4 Oct 1998 16:01:13 GMT, phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut) wrote:

>>JC> The choice exists to use a product or to use a different one. If
>>JC> it matters to you that much then it is up to YOU to bring an
>>JC> OpenSource product out which is the equal of the propietary one -
>>JC> YOU DO HAVE THAT FREEDOM!
>
>Not necessarily.  You may be hindered by
>(1) patents

there are very few software patents.  to the extent they exist, they
are a hinderance.

>(2) obscure interfaces that will be somewhere else by the
>    time you have finally emulated them
>

I'm not sure exactly what this means, other than its obvious general
meaning that your software might be obsolete by the time you get it
out.  But then, instead of copying someone else's application, maybe
you should be doing something new and better.
    
>
>>JC> Licensing allows the developer of a software product to spread
>>JC> those costs among all the purchasers of a product and then to make
>>JC> some profit so that development can begin on a new product.
>
>Some social models of financing Open Source development are also
>conceivable. I.e. a hardware tax whose revenues are used for public bidding
>or prize awarding.  

please, let's leave the government out of it.  If you think M$ is bad,
government sponsored software would only be the worst possible
nightmare.

>With today's level of public communication, it should be
>possible to develop this (what some people may call socialist style) economy
>in a sound and credible way.  And however corrupt the system may become, it
>won't be more inept than "The Market", which has shown itself to be totally
>inept in creating informational values.
>

huh?

show me one country with better informational values (if I understand
that term) than the united states.

whose values do you want to impose on others, by the way.  Let's not
lose sight of the fact that the german government saw fit to impose
its own informational values on compuserve.

the market works fine.  it's ordinary people who fuck up.  but the
market eventually punishes those who fuck up, so they learn, and maybe
do better the next time around.

sorry pal, but I haven't been too impressed with socialism to date.

>--
>Hartmut Pilch
>http://www.a2e.de/phm/
>
>
>