Estimating the Size/Cost of Linux

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Estimating the Size/Cost of Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday July 5, 2002 @02:09AM from the now-thats-a-lotta-dough dept.

2bits writes "Wow... A Billion Dollars Worth Of Software On My System For Free! Check This Guy Out, He Came Up With A Counting / Pricing Method For Quite A Few Types of Source Code. Here is the Program. The results on the site are sorta dated, based on RH 7.1, but the app is pretty cool!... Hey, I can finally find out how much all my side projects are worth / costing me..."

14 of 196 comments (clear)

lets see here..... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-05 02:14 · Score: 4, Funny

[cmdrtaco@localhost]$ est slashcode Analyzing slashcode..... Result: $6.66 [cmdrtaco@localhost]$
1. Re:lets see here..... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-05 02:24 · Score: 0, Funny
  
  according to the VA Linux's most recent quarterly filings, slashcode has a negative value.
Yeah.... by graphicartist82 · 2002-07-05 02:16 · Score: 3, Funny

A Billion Dollars Worth Of Software On My System For Free!

Yeah, that's what happens when you use P2P _WAY_ too much
Re:WTF? by be-fan · 2002-07-05 02:18 · Score: 2, Funny

The funny thing is that this story was posted on Slashdot a year ago!

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bad news for Linux? by tps12 · 2002-07-05 02:19 · Score: 5, Funny

This looks like a serious problem for Linux distributors like Red Hat, Mandrake, and Debian. They sell their products (which consist of software and support and manuals) for $40-$100, usually. Now we see that what they put into their product (i.e., the cost) is orders of magnitude beyond that. Even if Red Hat sold every single copy it packaged (it doesn't even come close), and even if nobody downloaded it for free or copied the CDs for a friend (again, an incredibly optimistic assumption), it would still be looking at huge losses.

This might have worked a few years ago, but with accounting practices coming under scrutiny across the board, I fear that these companies are headed for trouble.

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1. Re:bad news for Linux? by jsse · 2002-07-05 03:58 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  To: ceo@redhat.com
  From: Congress
  
  Dear Sir,
  
  We figured out recently that you are selling software which worths 1 billion dollar at suspiciously low price(~$30-$200).
  
  Worse still, you also allow people downloading your software products from your website for Free! We've reason to suspect that you also involved in anti-competitive practices.
  
  I hereby invite you and your accountants to come to congress to answer some of our questions.
  
  Best Rgds,
  
  P.S. Do not attempt to destroy any accounting records, we are watching you.
Six dollars and 66 cents? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-05 02:21 · Score: 0, Funny

For slashcode? Dude, you got ripped off!
Re:Slow news day, Taco? by carlos_benj · 2002-07-05 02:30 · Score: 3, Funny

...couldn't you at least have fixed This Guy's Moronic Capitalization Scheme?

That's not a scheme. The entire post is a very long title for a very short book he's writing...

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As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
No more functions for me... by evilviper · 2002-07-05 02:31 · Score: 3, Funny

I'll never use macros, functions, classes, or the stl again!

"Look, I wrote a program which does the exact same thing as another program, but mine is worth much, much more!"

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Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
PWPBOT IS DEAD by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-05 02:46 · Score: 0, Funny

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - troller/crapflooder pwpbot was found dead in its basement this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss it - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying its contributions to popular culture. Truly an Slashdot icon.
Linux's true cost: by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-05 03:18 · Score: 4, Funny

Priceless
Lies, damned lies, and statistics by Control-Z · 2002-07-05 03:32 · Score: 3, Funny

Obligatory Simpsons quote:

"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that."
visible man, with invisible shirt by Dr.+Awktagon · 2002-07-05 04:12 · Score: 4, Funny

Note to Mr. Wheeler: when your shirt is the same color as the background of your web site, you might want to put a thin border around the picture with your favorite free image editing software.. though I'm wondering why exactly your picture is there at all..
funny, but actually closer to $1,000,000 by Pinball+Wizard · 2002-07-05 04:15 · Score: 4, Funny

Sloccount run on Slashcode 2.25 gives us this:

Total Estimated Cost to Develop = $ 996,916

I would have posted the entire output of the program, but unfortunately, their million-dollar lameness filter wouldn't let me!

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