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- Xref: sparky gnu.misc.discuss:4277 talk.philosophy.misc:3196 alt.usage.english:10333 alt.society.anarchy:1049
- Path: sparky!uunet!math.fu-berlin.de!mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE!jaenicke
- From: jaenicke@emserver.ee.tu-berlin.de (Lutz Jaenicke)
- Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,talk.philosophy.misc,alt.usage.english,alt.society.anarchy
- Subject: Re: Fund raising at the FSF
- Date: 7 Jan 1993 12:12:26 GMT
- Organization: TU-Berlin, Institut fuer Elektrische Maschinen
- Lines: 33
- Message-ID: <1ih6naINNk6c@mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE>
- References: <9LPywB26w165w@mantis.co.uk> <1993Jan7.112550.22626@uwasa.fi>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: emws1.ee.tu-berlin.de
-
- In article <1993Jan7.112550.22626@uwasa.fi> vinsci@brando.uwasa.fi (Leonard Norrgard) writes:
- >If X had been under the GPL, the manufacturer *would have to* give me
- >the source. There is no escape to that. I don't care if their
- >support is bad, as long as there is an alternative. Since I can't get
- >the source, there really is no alternative as of now.
-
- If X had been under the GPL, I really doubt it would have been such
- succesfull (same applies to the BSD extensions to UNIX, e.g. networking).
- The computer manufacturers, like all companies, have to make profits.
- To do so, they have to sell the customers their products, which can
- only be achieved by:
- 1. lower prices (e.g. PC-Clone business)
- 2. better (at least different) technology
- The second implies, that the companies must have the possibility to keep
- large parts of their knowlegde and technology _secret_. So, even if
- a piece of software under GPL wouldn't make a large part of the whole
- product, every manager will think _twice_ before including it.
-
- The above statement IMHO also applies to the standardization of products.
- If all companies would sell you exactly the same OS and software, who
- will keep you buying _insert_your_favorite_ products rather than
- the new faster workstation from _my_favorite_? So the manufacturers
- are forced to be incompatible and hide their secrets.
-
- Lutz
-
- PS. All comments with respect to the bad support of workstation manufacturers
- still apply, even if my vendor is different from yours.
- --
- Lutz Jaenicke jaenicke@emserver.ee.tu-berlin.de
- Institut fuer Elektrische Maschinen jaenicke@emapollo.ee.tu-berlin.de
- Technische Universitaet Berlin Tel. (004930)314-24552
- Einsteinufer 11, D-1000 Berlin 10 Fax. (004930)314-21133
-