🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Blake wrote:
>Jason Clifford wrote:
>>David Damerell <damerell@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes
>>>Hell, Red Hat aren't exactly penniless, are they?
>
>>Exactly. The ONLY way to make money from GPL software is to be the one
>>who installs and supports it commercially.
>
>No, that's not the only way. 
>
>You could sell manuals. Many people buy Redhat's distribution
>only to have a manual (and a meager one at that).
>
>O'Reilly makes a ton of cash from free software as well.
>

That making money selling books, not writing GPL software.
I'm dyslexic, and not a publishing company.

>You could pay a lot of the best hackers in the world to hack,
>and occasionally have them do an industrial hack - like making
>Applix's software run better under linux, or helping Oracle
>and Sybase port to linux.
>

Thats making money from consultancy, not writing GPL software.

>Heck, you could produce GPL software because you are actually
>a loosely disguised software consulting firm and not actually
>a linux distributor.
>

Dito.

>>The problem there is that many of the programmers do not do this as they
>>are a bit too busy actaully maintaining the package.
>>
>>Red Hat have a very good way to deal with this issue. They send money to
>>the developers - sort of like a royalty payment.
>
>Red Hat PAYS the developers, and they WORK for Red Hat.
>They may produce GPL code and have intellectual freedom,
>but they are GREAT MARKETING for Red Hat and further establish
>Red Hat as the number one commercial linux consulting firm.
>

Thats nice of them, but how does one become a payed up Red Hat
developer?  I take it its not a case of applying for a job and getting
put on the payroll.

>
>>We do not do this yet as we have never made a profit - so far I have
>>personally subsidised the business to over �10,000. Once the business
>>starts making a profit I intend to follow suit by making donations to
>>the FSF and other relevant organisations that fund GPL development.
>>-- 
>>Jason Clifford
>>Definite Linux Systems
>>http://definite.ukpost.com/
>
>Red Hat is doing something I do not see anyone else doing -
>they are embracing a very different market strategy. They
>truly believe the future is in support and consulting
>for linux, and not in distribution sales. They want to 
>give away the best distribution possible to drive the OS
>market down to zero dollars.
>
>That then maximizes the market for software consulting.
>

I don't want to be a consultent.  I want to create software.
I *still* can't see how somone can make a living from creating
software under the GPL licence.
(as apposed to making money from GPL software spin-offsa)

Thad.

PS: Sorry if you think I over quoted, but it seemed relevent in the
context of the descussion.