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Other businesses with high profitabilityOther businesses with high profitabilityPosted Dec 21, 2005 23:27 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)In reply to: Mandriva to ship Skype by emkey Parent article: Mandriva to ship Skype Interesting point of view. Sadly, it adds nothing to the discussion: the same argument could be made about joining the Maffia or teaming with Colombian drug lords. What we are discussing here is not the convenience or profitability of shipping Skype, but its relevance in relation to the goals of free software.
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Other businesses with high profitability Posted Dec 21, 2005 23:59 UTC (Wed) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] The relavency should be obvious. If free software companies don't stay in business then the free software movement will essentially die.
Other businesses with high profitability Posted Dec 22, 2005 4:21 UTC (Thu) by bk (guest, #25617) [Link] Free software existed before there were any companies based on it, and I would assume free software will continue after all of them are gone (or after the very concept of a software-based business becomes an anachronism).
Other businesses with high profitability Posted Dec 22, 2005 18:27 UTC (Thu) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] Existence and relevancy are two very different things. I have no doubt that free software will continue to exist in some for for the forseable future. The question is what portion of the market will it make up. And I can tell you with 100% certainty that no company of any size will touch free software with a ten foot poll if they don't have somebody to call when they run into problems. When I was in my 20's I didn't understand this attitude. As I rapidly approach age 40 I have no problem at all understanding it. CYA isn't just an acronym, it's a dang good idea. And having a specific number to call when things go wrong is a very comforting position to be in.
Other businesses with high profitability Posted Dec 22, 2005 6:33 UTC (Thu) by donwaugaman (subscriber, #4214) [Link] Fortunately, the free software movement is not dependent upon free software companies.
OK, you used the qualifier "essentially". I would still argue that even if Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Mandriva, and the like all went out of business or decided to abandon free software, that the free software movement would continue. Heck, the free software movement did pretty well in the past before any of the aforementioned were free software companies (or even in existence, in two cases).
I would make a slight modification to my comments, though, that the free software movement could be killed by legislation or political action sponsored by companies threatened by it, which is why it's nice to have free software companies around to provide some counterbalance in ways legislators can understand. But thanks to the GPL, the free software movement has little dependence on free software companies.
It's OK if the current set of companies leave the movement. The movement can make more - and the movement offers too much to the business world as a whole to *not* have that be the case.
Other businesses with high profitability Posted Dec 22, 2005 8:02 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] So, it would be good if they sold dual-booting Windows, so that free software can stay alive? Or if they started e.g. doing contract killing, just to diversify business, it would be justified?Mandriva has a core business which is selling a free operating system. If its users do not like what it sells, for example because they bend over for proprietary software companies, then they will go out of business; no matter what current management thinks.
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