Re: GNAT GPL is not shareware

[David Botton <david@botton.com>]

>I don't believe most of this. For one thing, AdaCore has lots of 
> non-compiler products; they've clearly tried (and are trying) to provide 
> many things other than the compiler.

Wrong, they didn't have any other products in production when they made the decision to pull the license gun and they simply didn't try a single thing else.

They could have tried keeping other tools proprietary and many other options. All of which would have been better choices for the community and for long term bottom lines.

> But I contend that any business model based on software is ultimately 
> doomed.

Not true, there is money just not directly in essential tools and that was and is a part of a social movement to prevent someone taking away your hammer (cough cough... and here some have tried in the name of Free Software...)

> Free Software has made it far too easy to copy any good ideas

That is the idea, innovate. With innovation also comes the challenge of innovating how to fund such projects as well.

> The pioneer, the visionary has no hope of making any money off their work 

No, he just needs to know how to make money (or how to partner with others that know how to make money) in different ways. Many, including myself, have done well in software and continue to do so. Most (perhaps today none) of us do not do it through direct sales.

>they have to do something totally unrelated ("job 
> placement", what the heck does that have to do with anything?)

A pull out of the hat example of cross domain revenue streams, head hunting even in Ada has made money for many.

> and that 
> takes way too much time away from the thing that would actually do good.

As time goes on competition gets stronger and requires more creativity and "different" types of hard work for payouts.

David Botton