Re: [SLUG] considering open sourcing my app

From: Robin 'Roblimo' Miller (robin@roblimo.com)
Date: Sat May 17 2003 - 16:24:44 EDT


Eric Jahn wrote:

>I'm just concerned about the new linux consumers who might be shocked if
>they were told what percentage of the code they were getting in the
>$40-80 shrink-wrapped box was free GPLd software. Sort of a consumer
>information concern, in my opinion. Just like the right to know about
>organic food content... Agreed, Suse makes a fine product.
>

I don't think so. Ethical distro publishers, including SuSE, make it
clear that they're charging for packaging, integration, and support, and
that most of the software in their complete package is GPL or otherwise
freely obtainable.

I've downloaded Mandrake for free, then obtained and installed all the
packages I wanted. I've also installed from their pro/deluxe version,
which I assure you makes things enough easier that -- at least to me --
it's worth the money.

Libranet charges for Debian + installer, and you don't want to pay them?
No problem! Download and install pure Debian. Want ActiveState's Perl
IDE, you're going to pay. But you can write Perl just fine (many say
better) without it.

- Robin



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