| |||
| bsd | dude, where's my code? | ||
| code | hacking for the masses | ||
| contact | solo sex does not qualify as reaching out and touching someone | ||
| gnu | what it means to be free | ||
| history | what state of mental health? | ||
| microsoft | on the lack of innovation | ||
| mrt | get out of school, do drugs, don't drink milk | ||
| phil | an ode to my favorite groundhog | ||
| religion | i am write and you are wrong | ||
| schismtracker | what makes good software great | ||
| secure | tightrope walking without a net | ||
( home : gnu ) do you like this page? yes (55% ) / no (44% )
I use GNU software. I also write some GNU software. I've stated elsewhere that some software I release and others I don't, and, to which is more important, why. This page isn't about that. It's why you should develop GNU software.
WARNING
This is a work in progress. I am not a lawyer, and may not have all of my facts straight. If I am missing something, or you feel like I should add a footnote on here, please contact me.
Some more clarification
A lot of people talk about good hacker karma, and donations, and giving back to the community. I think of other things when I think of GNU software: I think, shorter development time, less wasted money, less banging head against wall, and most importantly: looking damn unstopable to my employer.
GNU software shortens development time because I can leverage other programmers around the world to shorten it. If my software is too particular or unique, it isn't going to be useful to others, so other people won't help. That means I don't release it.
On the other hand, if my software is useful, others will develop for it, and now I have more time to write cynical quips on my website, sleep, and (this is the part my employer likes) work on other projects.
Developing GNU software can lower development cost
On the other hand, if I want to sell a service, and my software _makes_ that service, then it doesn't make much sense to be giving it away, right?
Fortunately, Professor Bernstein teaches a valuable lesson that seems to be forgotten in many UNIXish projects: build many small programs to interoperate. You get less bugs, and lower development time.
I can release _some_ of these components GNU, and keep the more proprietary stuff back. The same rules apply here; since the small programs are useful by themselves, I can focus on the things that are more useful to me by them being unique to me.
GNU does not mean no-charge
A lot of people mention that you can sell support, or you can sell bandwidth or services, but what these same people forget is that you can still sell your software.
The GNU license was designed to make it so I can obtain some software (even by paying for it), and have the freedom to improve it. Most importantly, with that freedom, comes the obligation. To improve on someone elses work, I must make my derivitive work available to everyone else who has the original.
Logically, if the product is extremely useful, it will gain wide distribution, and sales will drop off completely.
At that point, enough people have contributed to it to make it no longer _my_ product, so I shouldn't be able to rape and strongarm people with licensing and other things that hurt my image and my customers.
Something else worth thinking about: If you pretend to sell software, while really extorting your customers (e.g. you are microsoft) then you are evil and corrupt anyway. You don't want to be evil do you?
Okay, maybe you want to be evil. But can you keep your customers from thinking you are evil forever?
GNU does not mean giving up your trademark
Let's say you make a piece of software called FooSQL and release it under the GPL. Now you sell your software for 600$USD and are doing fine. Someone comes along and takes FooSQL and makes some modifications to it, and start releasing their own version of FooSQL.
Some would have you believe there is no recourse, but the truth is that they cannot steal your marketing presense or the good name you have already built up for your company. They simply may not call their product FooSQL, My FooSQL, or anything else using your trademark.
A common argument is that's okay: but the evil they could release it under their own name: BarSQL
In a fair marketplace, this still won't cause any problems. The user won't purchase BarSQL because it won't have anything internally feature-wise better than FooSQL. If they simply decide to lower the price down to 500$USD, and you can't do that, then your price was too high to begin with: match them.
The only place this fails us is when you factor the cost of development into the price of the software. Most software companies claim to do this, but don't, so I'm only covering it here because of that claim- that argument that this is how things really work.
Developing GNU software can lower development cost
Yes, we're back at the beginning again. That's a good thing, because it's easy to forget that GNU is a circular deal. If your software is useful to enough people, you gain developers around the world. If it isn't, but you still think you can sell it, then you're doing something closer to contracting, and not really selling your software.
Your initial development starts as an investment. Your development costs are recouped in your sales. When distribution is wide enough, your improvement and maintainence costs are distributed as well.
To what end....
GNU will keep you unique and competitive. Customers will not tolorate having to pay for bugfixes and licenses forever. They love competition, and if you're not offering anything new in the feature-field, then you will inevitably fail.
GNU solves a unique problem: The intolorably corrupt software industry: There is no barometer and no ceiling to software prices for now, but that won't last forever. Don't believe that the GNU movement will fail or will stall out for any reason whatsoever, because it never will.
Some final notes
I've avoided talking about free publicity, and free software zealotry (sic). These are just bonuses: but bonuses to be considered. By developing GNU software that serves a purpose and tackles a unique market, the simple fact that it is GNU will open the floodgates to all the sites dedicated to the active promotion of anything GNU.
I'm not aware of any serious repository for non-free software advocation, and I've never really seen anyone truly excited about having to pay for software. Be completely aware of this when selling your software.
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