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What's The Linux Kernel Worth?

Posted by timothy on from the tree-falls-in-forest-makes-sound dept.

schneelocke writes "What's the value of the Linux kernel? After an offer by one Jeff V. Merkey to pay 50K USD for a BSD-licensed copy of Linux, David Wheeler does some calculations and comes up with an estimate of 612M USD." Wheeler has come up with a number of interesting software-worth estimates and other quantified facts about Free software; since some aspects involve ineffables and hypotheticals, the details can be argued, but he provides a good framework with SLOCCount.

5 of 376 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Nothing by millwall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The end result is that the Linux kernel has no market value what so ever. The developers won't sell it at the market's price, and the market won't buy it at the developers price.

    This is not quite true. The market value is what the market would buy the product for, if it WAS for sale.

    Imagine that you have a car, which you for whatever reason don't want to sell at the moment. This doesn't leave your car with "no market value". The market value is still what the market would have bought it for if it was for sale.

  2. Re:Nothing by wcbarksdale · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the Mona Lisa is worth nothing, because the Louvre isn't willing to sell it?

  3. Re:Nothing by bickerdyke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are asuming that there IS a market. The OP stated that there is currently no market for linux kernels, because there is only one potential buyer and one potential seller who cant agree on a price --> no trade, no market, no market price.

    In your example there is a market for collector cars which can be used to find a market price.

    But it would be better to say "priceless" than "nothing"

    --
    bickerdyke
  4. pretty safe offer by Kwantus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Jeff's offer:
    This offer must be accepted by **ALL** copyright holders...
    That'll be harder than getting agreement on the Charlottetown accord (a thing in which any given Canadian could find something to hate)...A) you'll never find *ALL* the copyright holders - plus the complication some have died, who of their heirs has the say? B) of the hundreds you can find it's sure a few will say No on principle.
  5. Re:Nothing by Bombcar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You've hit the nail on the head. The Linux kernel is Priceless.

    A DSL connection to the internet: $50
    A decent PC: $500
    Downloading enterprize-class source code: Priceless.

    There is some code you can't buy, for everything else, there's Microsoft.

    --
    Fellowship 9/11