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=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,577c9f9c0cdd76d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: aidan@skinner.demon.co.uk (Aidan Skinner) Subject: Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly new in ada programing Date: 1999/11/04 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 544608992 X-NNTP-Posting-Host: skinner.demon.co.uk:158.152.76.219 References: <7vs4g9$7hs1@news.cis.okstate.edu> X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941761159 nnrp-01:9681 NO-IDENT skinner.demon.co.uk:158.152.76.219 Organization: None User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.7 (UNIX) Reply-To: aidan@skinner.demon.co.uk Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-11-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: On Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:09:28 GMT, tmoran@bix.com wrote: >imply free(gratis), so am I prevented from taking the GNAT source, >modifying it, say for MacOS, and charging for it (following the No, not at all. The only thing that you can't do is fail to provide access to the source code for the product (including your modifications). >ACT prevented from charging for upgrades after the customer is As I understand the ACT pricing model, you pay for the suppourt you recieve from them in a professional capactiy. The "product"[1] is the suppourt for the compiler... >locked in ? Or the same for any other vendor of "{open-systems} >{standard}s" software? Because, with free software, I (me, myself) can start a company (lets call it "Silly Idea") and start to offer suppourt for GNAT at a cheaper rate than ACT. Now, if I offer better suppourt at a cheaper price than ACT, I'll probably do quite well. If I offer moderately worse suppourt at a much cheaper price I'll probably be able to survive. If I offer worse suppourt, or charge more, I'll probably go bust. It's a totally open marketplace for the "product", you just have to change what your perception of the "product" is. Free Software practically guarantees that you wont be locked in, since anybody can enter the market place and offer the same services as a malicious vendor[2][3]. - Aidan [1] Used here as the thing for which money is charged, not something which is produced. Hence the """ around it. [2] Which is, IMO, what any vendor who sets out to lock-in their customers are, but I'm a bit left-wing at times. ;) [3] There's one exception to this AFAIK, and that's that a vendor who owns the copyright can licence the product without code, or under a different licence to suit their customers (eg BSD instead of GPL). -- "I say we just bury him and eat dessert" http://www.skinner.demon.co.uk/aidan/ OpenPGP Key Fingerprint: 9858 33E6 C755 7D34 B5C5 316D 9274 1343 FBE6 99D9