[FSF-India] Re: Mr. Bhat's message

[Varun Sinha]

I did read it and still was not convinced.
It's clearly implied that even if one person buys the CD, then she/he is
free to give it to as many people as she/he wants, modified or unmodified.
So I don't really understand how that can significantly contribute to
someone's income.
But I am beginning to realize something else, after u pointed out the case
of Cygnus. The beautiful thing about free software is that it can be
customized to suit one's needs. You can take a free software, customize it
for your company (while at the same time improving the code) and then
release the changes. You have a product tailor-made for your needs and you
have contributed to the free software movement!!
So while I am still relatively unconvinced about how writing free software
can put bread on the table, I am now beginning to see how valuable it is for
companies.
Thanks!!
Regards,
Varun

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ramakrishnan M" <rkrishnan@ti.com>
To: <fsf-india@gnu.org.in>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: [FSF-India] Re: Mr. Bhat's message


> Varun Sinha wrote:
> >
> > How? That is what I can't figure out!!
> > I think it's important that it become economically viable so that more
> > resources will be put into it and better products can be made
>
> Probably you have heard about a company called Cygnus which made a lot of
money
> from free software while contributing to the development tools like
gcc/gdb
> etc. Probably now is the time for start a more successful business like
that as
> people are frenzy over the embedded devices. Most of the people use some
foobar
> processor which existed in pre-historic age, and for which no good tools
exist.
> you can make money by adapting gcc/gdb/binutils etc for that procesor (for
some
> company) and also contribute that code to the community. It's a niche
area, and
> the most ethical thing to do...
>
> There are several such things you can do to make money. If you have
*really
> read* the www.gnu.org site, you must have found a section "Selling Free
> Software" (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html). If you haven't,
please
> do so, and come back. There is whole buch of documents there under the
> philosophy section. Please read those docs which *might* answer your
querries
> better.
>
> --
> Ramakrishnan M       <rkrishnan@ieee.org>
> GPG: 1024D/6A9F3C38  WWW: http://www.symonds.net/~rkrishnan/
> _______________________________________________
> http://mail.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-india
>
>
>



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