People don't pay for stuff if given the choice not to.
I'm not so sure about that... As an example : in the town where I live, there is a bar where you can pay what you want. Their is no fixed prices, you choose. If you dont want to pay at all, no problem. And believe me or not, but it works ! People actually pay more for a beer than what they would in another bar !
Ok, that's with "real" stuff, you actually get something more than a bunch of bytes... It might not work exactly the same for music on the internet... But still... and if you go check the numbers at Magnatunes you'll see that their is people who pay more than requiered...
That's the difference between the software and hardware worlds ! Software distribution falls under the copyright laws. In Switzerland at least, it is considered as literature because there is a programming language. You can license software, which means that you give the user more rights than what he would have had under only copyright laws ; and that's not a contract, thats a license.
In the hardware world, it doesnt work the same. This microscope could be protected under the "industrial designs and drawing law" or whatever it is called in english. But for that, you'll have to pay to register you design...
Grandma is not in control of her new Windows XP box.
That's why I use GNU/Linux and not M$ Windows XP. That's why on the few XP boxen I administer I dont use the aumatic Windows update "feature". That's why I trust more a Linux box with a good administrator than a Windows box with an equally good administrator. An automatic security might be a good thing for the average user, not if you really want a good security.
And I really hope that pilots are "good administrator".
Last time I checked, the Bern convention was only about copyright issues. The main concern the Open Source comunity should have is about patents. And as far as I remember patents are not deposed worldwide. They are valid only in the issuing country. Worldwide patents are much more expensive and not that much used (exept for pharmaceutics...)
Personnally, I woudnl give money to an org that has a very low administrative overhead. You also need to spend money on control, decisions,... I also dont think you should monitor too much where the money goes. I would much more monitor the goals, the quality of the job (in this case, how usefull is wikipedia).
For my part, I've never used wikiedia and I dont plan to use it... I wont give money. If I had found it usefull, I would probably have given some... but I'll be trusting whoever is behind it to make the right choices. Anyway, you wont do much personnal profits on a found raising of 20'000$
Technicaly, DRM and Open Source aren't exclusive. But you still need to validate your implementation of DRM and the OS, and the software you're using. That costs money, and everytime there is a change in the source you'll need to revalidate. It will become quite hard to modify software... one of the key benefit of Open Source will then be gone...
I use Evolution for e-mails, and it has a nice feature : virtual folders. It allows you to put the same mail in many folders, based an certain criteria. Sadly, it doesnt work yet for contacts,...
I checked the numbers... they are already more mobile phones in China than in the USA. OK, the population is about 5-6 times bigger as well. But that means there is place for an extending market. Communication network are a crucial point for a developping economy and a mobile network is much cheaper. In most western countries "everybody" already has a mobile phone. Even if they change their phone every year, they are not ready to pay much for it, so the interesting market is somewhere else... Maybe not right know, but at in the next 5 years at most !
OK, I'm sorry. I think I overreacted a bit... I react quite too fast lately when I see something that looks just a bit like an american / western supremacy... and this post wasnt even that way... sorry.
And when will USA stop being a third world country ? When will it become a democratic country and have less than 40% unalphabet and less than 30% below poverty linee ?
Once again, you didnt make any difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in speech" ! There is no problem in selling free software, at whatever price you want !
Besides that, you can always download RedHat (and all other distro) from the net !
If you look at what they come from... keeping compatibility with all the line of x86 CPU, implementing pipeline with that awfull ISA they have, they are actually pretty good ! At least, they make miracles !
Just my own two cents, but what about the thousand of Afghan/Irakian/... innocent civilian who died after the US fought back ? Are they "less innocent" than american civilian ? All the people that died from the US embargos,... and so on
Slashdot Mirror
People don't pay for stuff if given the choice not to.
... As an example : in the town where I live, there is a bar where you can pay what you want. Their is no fixed prices, you choose. If you dont want to pay at all, no problem. And believe me or not, but it works ! People actually pay more for a beer than what they would in another bar !
... It might not work exactly the same for music on the internet ... But still ... and if you go check the numbers at Magnatunes you'll see that their is people who pay more than requiered ...
I'm not so sure about that
Ok, that's with "real" stuff, you actually get something more than a bunch of bytes
That's the difference between the software and hardware worlds ! Software distribution falls under the copyright laws. In Switzerland at least, it is considered as literature because there is a programming language. You can license software, which means that you give the user more rights than what he would have had under only copyright laws ; and that's not a contract, thats a license.
...
In the hardware world, it doesnt work the same. This microscope could be protected under the "industrial designs and drawing law" or whatever it is called in english. But for that, you'll have to pay to register you design
That's why I use GNU/Linux and not M$ Windows XP. That's why on the few XP boxen I administer I dont use the aumatic Windows update "feature". That's why I trust more a Linux box with a good administrator than a Windows box with an equally good administrator. An automatic security might be a good thing for the average user, not if you really want a good security.
And I really hope that pilots are "good administrator".
Last time I checked, the Bern convention was only about copyright issues. The main concern the Open Source comunity should have is about patents. And as far as I remember patents are not deposed worldwide. They are valid only in the issuing country. Worldwide patents are much more expensive and not that much used (exept for pharmaceutics ...)
Personnally, I woudnl give money to an org that has a very low administrative overhead. You also need to spend money on control, decisions, ... I also dont think you should monitor too much where the money goes. I would much more monitor the goals, the quality of the job (in this case, how usefull is wikipedia).
... I wont give money. If I had found it usefull, I would probably have given some ... but I'll be trusting whoever is behind it to make the right choices. Anyway, you wont do much personnal profits on a found raising of 20'000$
For my part, I've never used wikiedia and I dont plan to use it
Technicaly, DRM and Open Source aren't exclusive. But you still need to validate your implementation of DRM and the OS, and the software you're using. That costs money, and everytime there is a change in the source you'll need to revalidate. It will become quite hard to modify software ... one of the key benefit of Open Source will then be gone ...
I use Evolution for e-mails, and it has a nice feature : virtual folders. It allows you to put the same mail in many folders, based an certain criteria. Sadly, it doesnt work yet for contacts, ...
I checked the numbers ... they are already more mobile phones in China than in the USA. OK, the population is about 5-6 times bigger as well. But that means there is place for an extending market. Communication network are a crucial point for a developping economy and a mobile network is much cheaper. In most western countries "everybody" already has a mobile phone. Even if they change their phone every year, they are not ready to pay much for it, so the interesting market is somewhere else ... Maybe not right know, but at in the next 5 years at most !
OK, I'm sorry. I think I overreacted a bit ... I react quite too fast lately when I see something that looks just a bit like an american / western supremacy ... and this post wasnt even that way ... sorry.
And when will USA stop being a third world country ? When will it become a democratic country and have less than 40% unalphabet and less than 30% below poverty linee ?
Once again, you didnt make any difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in speech" ! There is no problem in selling free software, at whatever price you want !
Besides that, you can always download RedHat (and all other distro) from the net !
If you look at what they come from ... keeping compatibility with all the line of x86 CPU, implementing pipeline with that awfull ISA they have, they are actually pretty good ! At least, they make miracles !
Just my own two cents, but what about the thousand of Afghan/Irakian/... innocent civilian who died after the US fought back ? Are they "less innocent" than american civilian ? All the people that died from the US embargos, ... and so on
What really makes the difference ?