Free vs proprietary (was Re: NumPy, SciPy, & Python 3X Installation/compatibility issues)

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 10 May 2014 21:16:06 -0700, Nelson Crosby wrote:

> I also believe in this more 'BSD-like' view, but from a business point
> of view. No one is going to invest in a business that can't guarantee
> against piracy, and such a business is much less likely to receive
> profit (see Ardour).

I think that's nonsense. Look at Red Hat, and Ubuntu. Their software is 
free to copy and free to distribute, although Red Hat does make it more 
difficult to copy actual RHEL, you can copy and distribute the re-branded 
RHEL known as Centos completely free of charge.

Selling physical product is not the only way to make money from software, 
and in fact, most programmers are not paid to write software for sale. 
They are paid to write in-house applications which are never distributed 
outside of the company paying for their labour.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano
http://import-that.dreamwidth.org/