[NTLUG:Discuss] to 'sell' or not to sell opensource

[Jerry Haltom]

I said not profitable to SELL GPL'd software. There is no way to stand
up in the market place. Service is another matter. So my statement still
stands.

On Wed, 2003-05-21 at 14:29, Chris Cox wrote:
> Jerry Haltom wrote:
> > GPL'd software is not unsellable. You misunderstand Free. Free as in
> > speech. Free as in beer is a side effect.
> > 
> > You can sell GPL'd software, and the GPL explicitly permits it, as long
> > as you also distribute a copy, or make available a copy of the source
> > code, the same code used to compile what you are selling. This means, it
> > is not profitable to sell GPL'd software. But you can still do it.
> 
> Also, consider large projects.. like Apache, Mozilla, even the whole
> of a Linux distribution.  Having source available is not very
> convenient.  Easier to pay someone else for the binaries.
> You also get some support (hopefully dependable), updates and
> upgrades... and the convenience of network-less install media
> (that's not on a cheap CDR).
> 
> Could certainly be profitable.  In fact, without the major
> distributions, Linux probably would have not market share at all
> (it would be strictly geek... and then, only for the incredibly
> patient geek).
> 
> Can you make money with OSS (and/or free software)?? I think yes.
> 
> 
> 
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