Python obfuscation

[Peter Maas]

Chris Mellon schrieb:
>>There is a company who is developing and marketing a single application.
>>It is a simulation software for industrial processes which embodies an
>>enormous amount of knowledge accumulated by the hard work of many
>>individuals since about twenty years, algorithmic, process, implementation,
>>market knowlegde. This application is of great value to the customers
>>because it helps them save lots of money and improve the quality of their
>>products. No wonder that they have (and are willing) to pay a considerable
>>price for it.
>>
> 
> 
> You just described UNIX, which has been all but replaced by open
> source projects, and the general state of the operating system market
> a few decades ago.

No, I didn't describe UNIX. UNIX and OSs in general are software which is
needed by everybody who is using a computer. You have many developers all
over the world willing to contribute. But the software I mentioned is a
highly specialized field  with a (compared to OS users) a tiny number of
customers and a degree of complexity at least the same as an OS. So I
think that an OSS model wouldn't work here. Also using UNIX as an example
is qustionable here because of its special history. UNIX was to a large
extent developed in academic environments and later closed sourced by AT&T
at a time when much OS specific knowledge was available in universities.

>>If the company would decide to go open source it would be dead very soon
>>because it wouldn't no longer have a competitive advantage. Most customers
>>wouldn't see the necessity to pay high prices, the competition would use
>>the source code in their own products, the earnings would fall rapidly and
>>there wouldn't be enough money availabe to pay highly skilled developpers,
>>engineers and scientists for continued development.
>>
>>In certain sense suppliers and customers ARE enemies because they have
>>different interests. The customer will pay a price only if it is neccessary
>>to get the product. If he can get it legally for nothing he won't pay anything
>>or at least not enough.
>>
>>So please: continue praising OSS (as I do) but don't make ideological claims
>>that it fits everywhere.

> You're looking at the wrong things here. What you're describing is
> actually a potentially very successfull open source project

Successful for whom?

 > - many
> companies, single source, highly technical, high price. An open source
> project could easily succeed in this area. Of course, it would not be
> in the interest of the current monopoly supplier to open source thier
> product. 

The supplier doesn't have a monopoly. He has competition but the supplier
started first, has always been the pacemaker and has therefore an advance.
His revenues are based on this advance. If somebody would suggest him to
go open source - what would be the advantage for him? Doing business is a
game, games are about winning and it isn't realistic to tell a player
to commit suicide.

> But a third party that started such a project could quite
> possibly succeed.

There are several 3rd parties all with closed source :) If an OSS 3rd
party would enter the game it would have to answer the question how
to fund the development. To succeed the OSS player would have to catch
up to its closed source competitors. This is anything but easy - there
is a lot of knowlegde (a crucial part of it not available for the
public) to be worked out. The developers have to earn money, who pays
them?

I think a lot of people believe OSS isn't about money. This is wrong.
Either OSS developers are working in their spare time for their own
pleasure. This puts some limits on their projects. Or they are working
all the day on OSS projects. Then they have to be paid, e.g. by academic
institutions (tax payer) or by companies like IBM and Novell who are
funding OSS because they have appropriate business models. There's
nothing wrong about this. But to pretend that OSS miraculously solves
the money problem for consumers _and_ producers is wrong IMO.

There are conditions for OSS for to succeed. It is worthwile to get to
know these conditions. To claim that there are no conditions at all and
OSS is successful by itself is certainly not true.

Peter Maas, Aachen