SkyOS GUI Contest

SillyClown writes "Just saw this on OSNews.com. SkyOS (an alternative OS) is having a contest to replace their user interface. There are 30 or so designs, and the polls are open for voting. Check it out, help shape the future of SkyOS!"

Comments

What's the business model?

[carndearg]

Leaving aside all do-they-use-GPL'd-code issues I have to admit a curiosity as to the SkyOS business model.

The freedom of a developer to charge for code is as much a freedom as the consumer's freedom to not buy code or the open source developer's freedom to give away their code. Bill Gates has every right to charge for XP(much as we might wish otherwise:), just as I have every right not to buy it. But if you take the decision to charge for code then you have to have a piece of code that is worth charging money for, or perhaps in some cases something that people are prepared to pay money for.

If they intend to make money from a closed source OS then I suspect they will be sorely disappointed. This OS looks quite nice but since it offers nothing that cant be found anywhere else where can it go? If I want to pay for an OS I'll go for one with application support, even if the one without only costs ten euros, and since there are free offerings out there that offer all this and more why should I want to pay in the first place?

Which leaves them with a few ten euro CD replication fees. Not much for that much work, is it? Surely an open source model would result in a distribution with far more value, with useful applications like OpenOffice.org which they could shift a load more of and quite legitimately get away with charging a bit more than 10 euros for CD copies.

However I could be missing a point and being unfair on the developer. Perhaps they do not view it as a revenue stream, instead using it to gain some other advantage. Since I write open software as much for the CV candy as the philanthropy (hey, you have to eat!) I can see why someone might do that.