Re: Realtime/embedded project to help with employment.

[Preben Randhol <randhol+abuse@pvv.org>]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> I never said "parasite" did I? I said they got their R&D work done for 
> free by a bunch of guys who voluntarily gave it away. I never disparaged 
> RedHat and I don't say that they did anything wrong. The guys who wrote 
> Linux put it out there under the GPL and RedHat simply took advantage of 
> what was freely available. 

It almost sounds like RedHat is the only company out there doing this.

> Perhaps the Linux authors *like* working for free and doing charity
> work for struggling young capitalists. 

Your mind is set on that programming is always work. I would say that in
stead of playing soccer or cruising around in cars or chasing girls at
the shopping malls or other activity, they program on their spare time
and contribute to the Linux out of interest. As to making money on
programming for Linux, RedHat, SUSE etc.. have people employed that work
solely on Linux. E.g. Alan Cox is working at RedHat. Thorvalds Linus was
working at Transmeta and they gave him time to work at Linux too.  Bruce
Peren worked at HP etc...

> That is their right. Viewed from that perspective, it might even have
> a certain nobility to it.  But it sure didn't get them compensated for
> doing the R&D work that spawned a whole industry, did it?

But they are not asking for that. As somebody once wrote in the
announcement of a piece of software (quote from my memory so it is not
exact in words):

   "I have gotten so many excellent tools and programs that it is time I
    contribute something myself."

I remember when I was young and doing athletics, the parents came and
helped arrange competitions and other events. They didn't ask to be
reimbursed if some of us won a medal. I guess the first trainer of the
Olympic winners don't expect to get money for helping the athlete
building the foundation of his career?

It is a dangerous to think that money is the only means of trade.

Anyway, the advantage and probably the future of RedHat and others lie
in support and security. There are many Linux distributions out there
and a lot of software. So packaging and inspecting the code is something
I think will be the main tasks for RedHat, SUSE and other companies in
the future. One company like this is the Norwegian company 

Trustix => http://www.trustix.net/ or http://www.trustix.com/

which makes secure Linux distributions. I think this is the future.

-- 
�I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet.
 So who am I to judge.�
                 - The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radioplay)