| |||||||||||||
Free and cheapFree and cheapPosted Apr 4, 2009 9:48 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)In reply to: Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times) by boog Parent article: Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times) Yes, it is hard to see the point without further explanations. I understood the original post as saying "Linux is not $3, it is $0 since it is free", but that would be misguided since Xandros and Ubuntu will charge something to the manufacturer anyway. Your interpretation ("Linux is cheap and libre too") makes more sense.
(Log in to post comments)
Free and cheap Posted Apr 4, 2009 19:34 UTC (Sat) by jiu (subscriber, #57673) [Link]
Actually... I meant it both ways: the article never mentions freedom of modification and redistribution, and I didn't know that Canonical or Xandros would make hardware makers pay for their distros (thought it was $0). Is it because they're including non-free components specially for them?
Free and cheap Posted Apr 4, 2009 19:48 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Xandros is indeed a non-free distribution (you cannot redistribute it freely). Ubuntu is mostly free (except for branded components I guess). I am not sure about the netbook distro, but it is probably the same; in any case a hardware maker could download a copy, remove all proprietary components and add back whatever they like. But OEMs pay for customization and integration anyway; in the end it is a per-unit fee quite similar to a license, albeit (in this case) much lower.The above is pretty much speculation, but the real picture should not be too far off.
|
|||||||||||||