Crossing the Desktop Linux Chasm in San Diego (Linux Journal)

Posted Feb 4, 2003 11:55 UTC (Tue) by copsewood (subscriber, #199)
In reply to: Crossing the Desktop Linux Chasm in San Diego (Linux Journal) by satai
Parent article: Crossing the Desktop Linux Chasm in San Diego (Linux Journal)

I don't see anything unethical in Lindows current policy. If they are able to bring a less technically proficient group of users into using Linux and make money by supporting this by charging for distribution of free (as in freedom not as in price) software (by making this easier to obtain/configure/install) I think most of us would like to see this. I don't see any real problems with this given that if they succeed they will soon have many competitors offering similar, if slightly differentiated products. That's the whole point of free as in freedom software - not that it has to be free as in price but the fact any competitor can distribute and support it within the license terms.

As I see it the long-term value from this business model will probably be picked up by most ISPs who will want to conserve external network traffic by providing fast and efficient free software distribution/updates to their own customers from their own mirrors.