From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00, HK_RANDOM_FROM autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,afb4d45672b1e262 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!atl-c05.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!cycny01.gnilink.net!spamkiller.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!trnddc02.POSTED!20ae255c!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Justin Gombos Subject: Re: Making money on open source, if not by selling _support_, then how? References: <7NOdne-iYtWmIafZnZ2dnUVZ_tWdnZ2d@megapath.net> <292bf$443bb4e4$45491254$20549@KNOLOGY.NET> User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1 (Linux) Message-ID: Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:34:35 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.44.77.228 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: trnddc02 1144769675 129.44.77.228 (Tue, 11 Apr 2006 11:34:35 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 11:34:35 EDT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3775 Date: 2006-04-11T15:34:35+00:00 List-Id: On 2006-04-11, Marc A. Criley wrote: > > What I've seen, and been involved in, both in my professional career > and in my own personal activities, is that often the software can be > the basis of a "family" of products. Instead of increasing the > "density" of features by adding or changing them, increase the > breadth of applicability. E.g., if your programming tool only > handles Ada, add support for C++ and Java; if your command and > control system does launch planning for a specific type of missile, > add support for other kinds, and then other types of weapons; if > your text processor handles well-structured, but non-standardized > text formats, add explicit support for XML. That's a good point. This is another case where consumers of closed source software get shorted. Increasing breadth in the Bill Gates model usually means reproducing something that already exists, so the vendor can sell something to the customer that they already have. Consequently closed source buyers end up paying for the same functionality many times over because the code is not shared between the producers. The Richard Stallman (GNU) model enables developers to focus on their small piece because the interfacing pieces are freely available. So this matter of efficiency (not having to spend time reinventing) promotes better quality open source software. -- PM instructions: do a C4esar Ciph3r on my address; retain punctuation.