Very Computer

The paper, "The Cash and the Calling", is at:

http://www.agt.net/public/bmarshal/cashcall.htm

I find it a little harder to sell to the open-source community,
because the business strategy you've documented is facilitated by an
X11/BSD license, and people imagine the only reason to use such a
license is to take the freeware proprietary at some later date.  Maybe
a concern for system utilities and programming environments, but the
reasoning doesn't apply to the two-tier open source businesses you
describe, developing highly specialized applications with no mass
market.

In the world of layered vertical applications there is not much
difference between a company paying to have a unencumbered proprietary
application developed on top of (and in collaboration with) open
source, and a company paying to have a GPL encumbered application
developed that no one else would ever care to use.  Each approach can
be mutually beneficial to the private organization and the open
source.

Scott Johnston
Vectaport Inc.
http://www.vectaport.com

Quote:> The paper, "The Cash and the Calling", is at:

> >http://www.agt.net/public/bmarshal/cashcall.htm

<snip>

Quote:> In the world of layered vertical applications there is not much
> difference between a company paying to have a unencumbered proprietary
> application developed on top of (and in collaboration with) open
> source, and a company paying to have a GPL encumbered application
> developed that no one else would ever care to use.  Each approach can
> be mutually beneficial to the private organization and the open
> source.

> Scott Johnston  
> Vectaport Inc.  
> http://www.vectaport.com

I expect there will be more support for the X11/BSD
license over time.  As open-source becomes more
important, there will be increasing interest in
using open-source software within larger commercial
projects.

The strongest objections seem to come from people who
don't want commercial software to benefit from
open-source software - people who think commercial
software is wrong in principle.

It reminds me of when the Internet was becoming
popular, and there were objections to it being used
for commercial purposes.  Now, of course, many
millions of people benefit from people trying to do
things for money on the internet.