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How To Make Money With Free Software

Posted by kdawson on from the coin-of-the-realm dept.

bmsleight writes "The Dutch Ministry of Finance organized an architecture competition to design not a building, but rather the new 5-Euro commemorative coin. The theme was 'Netherlands and Architecture'. The winning design was made 100% with free software, mainly Python, but also including The Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch, and Ubuntu. The design is amazing — the head of Queen Beatrix is made up of the names of architects based on their popularity in Yahoo searches (rendered in a font of the artist's own devising). In the end the artist, Stani Michiels, had to collaborate closely on location with technicians of the Royal Dutch Mint, so all the last bits were done on his Asus Eee PC. Soon, 350,000 Dutch people will use and enjoy the fruits of free software."

14 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Again? by owlnation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article was on here a couple of days ago. DUPE!

    1. Re:Again? by Lectoid · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yep. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/30/2138259

      --
      Is it just me, or do you hate it when people say "Is it just me..."?
    2. Re:Again? by BrotherBeal · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does it make more sense to call it a dupe or a counterfeit?

      --
      I'm disabling ads until because I choose not to reward redesigns that are less usable than "view source".
    3. Re:Again? by vlm · · Score: 2, Funny

      This article was on here a couple of days ago. DUPE!

      Given the subject of the article, "counterfeit" would be a more appropriate term.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  2. Duuuupe by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wasn't this posted a few days ago? Ensue the copy-pasting of witty comments...

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    1. Re:Duuuupe by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Funny

      This witty comment is being released under a creative commons licence.

      You are free to copy-paste it into a dupe.
      By Attribution. Share alike.

    2. Re:Duuuupe by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

      Get a new and improved witty comment for only $5.00 per month. Market research has shown it to load faster in all kinds of weather and it doesn't harm the children. 200% of proceeds go to support our troops and fight terrorism.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  3. I thought you could only win once? by AcquaCow · · Score: 2, Funny

    Obviously he's time traveling and winning again!

      -- Dave

    --

    up 12 days, 22:30, 2 users, load averages: 993.20, 994.21, 994.56
    *makes note to limit user processes...
  4. How to really make money with free software... by Xest · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1. Create article about designing coin and winning contest

    2. Post same article to Slashdot including link to website with story MULTIPLE TIMES

    4. Farm ad revenue

    3. Profit

  5. Looks like ACORN struck here too. by electrictroy · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's bad enough for have the same voters registering two or three times...... now we have the same articles being posted twice or thrice. Looks like ACORN has been busier than I thought.

    --
    The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
  6. So will the coins be open source? by itsdapead · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only the GPL worked the way the anti-GPL schills think it does and "infected" all your output...

    Then we'd all have the right to copy and distribute 5 Euro coins. Woohoo!

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    1. Re:So will the coins be open source? by mweather · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why would you store your money on somebody else's computer when you can do a better job protecting it in your own system? ;)

      Because the FDIC won't replace my money if I spill beer on my server.

  7. could he do it in emacs? by wikinerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dupe. Wake me up when someone renders a coin in emacs, that would have infinite hack value.

  8. The Designer's fruit, not his tools by gsslay · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Soon, 350,000 Dutch people will use and enjoy the fruits of free software.

    Any value in the design is put there by the designer. No software, free or otherwise, will design a coin for you. Well, that is until Microsoft produces a Word template for it. And then they'll all be crap and overused.