Potentially important real-time on-line discussion

[Luciano ES]

Kyler Laird wrote on 01/08/03:

> I'm going to do my best to try to get people to stop making such a
> tight coupling between "open source" and "volunteers."  Any ideas on
> how to do it?  I've found that when I say "Red Hat" some people seem
> to nod as if they understand that there's nothing contradictory about
> "commercial open source software."

I think that another big question that strikes many companies is: "if I
make the source available, what will stop anyone from compiling the
source themselves and using it for free (illegally)?", or "if I make
the source available, what will stop anyone from using some of my best
ideas and becoming my competitor?"

That kind of fear tends to result in rejection of the OS model or a
further crave for protection, i.e. patents. I prefer living with closed
source to living with more patents. And no patent would make any
difference against illegitimate use of software (piracy). The
protection provided by passwords and serial numbers is feeble, but most
companies seem to be happy enough with it.

I think Open Source is great, but it also seems to prefer to pretend
that we live in an ideal world. We do not. Reality is brutal. Besides,
RedHat is not the average case. They are like Yahoo and Microsoft in
that they can afford to enforce certain ideas that most of the players
cannot.

-- 
Luciano ES
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<lucianoav at ggmmxx.nneett> (domain is obfuscated)
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