If you don't already know about this, and your eyes are glittering with the prospect of encrypted home directories.. there is a way to do this in linux also. It's called the cryptoloop. This is a kernel loop extension that uses the CryptoAPI encryption options to create an encrypted loop of a mount for your system. Although I don't think there is anything to make it as automagic as they probably have set up in OSX, this is something that's out there for those of us that are ultra paranoid. You can visit the CryptoAPI site here where you can get everything you need, or look into the new 2.6 test kernels that have cryptoloop and the CryptoAPI options as a standard feature.
If you look at other articles that Daniel Lyons has written for Forbes, you will see that this man is more or less anti-free software. He wrote an article back in June about SCO vs. Linux. In that article he describes linux users as: "like many religious folk, Linux-loving crunchies [are] convinced of their own rightousness..." This is just another article written by a another man who thinks that Linux will go nowhere because it isn't backed by a major corporation starting with an M.
It's my personal opinion not to read too much into the article, and take it just as it is, an opinion -- someone else's view on what is happening.
As it was said many times before me, it is near impossible to make money selling software on linux or bsd systems to people who expect to get it for free, and with the source. However, an effective money-making strategy within the open-source world is making an entrance.
Not everyone that uses open-source OS's is computer-savvy. They might have an idea of what they are doing but still need help a lot of the time, or they may be in a mission-critical possition where they do not have the time to spend asking questions and waiting for potentially unrelated or unhelpful answers on newsgroups or forums. These are the points that you want to capitalize on.
Take MySQL for example. The software is very good and very much free. But with all that work put in, where does it pay off? By selling support to corporate users, or customers in need of expert help from the core developers themselves. Packages start at the bottom with an inexpensive installation help package, all the way up to a package with a hefty price tag that will give the buyer unlimited email dialogue with the team, give the team login access to your server to help with administration, and 24/7 telephone support.
However, most start-ups do not have the resources that have accumulated over time for the MySQL team. The other option, also done by MySQL, is alternate licensing. That is, selling your software under a different, non-free license for a price. For MySQL, buyers of the alternate license can include the database's libraries royalty-free, and not have to worry about their application being inherently GPL-compatible.
Using the Windows idea of shareware, where authors slap a $10 registration on even the most useless software, will be shot down by the open-source community since users simply will not pay for software outside of something worth the money, such as OSS (Open Sound System). Selling product support and alternate licenses have had success by many different companies, and if done right it can be successful for you.
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't already know about this, and your eyes are glittering with the prospect of encrypted home directories.. there is a way to do this in linux also. It's called the cryptoloop. This is a kernel loop extension that uses the CryptoAPI encryption options to create an encrypted loop of a mount for your system. Although I don't think there is anything to make it as automagic as they probably have set up in OSX, this is something that's out there for those of us that are ultra paranoid. You can visit the CryptoAPI site here where you can get everything you need, or look into the new 2.6 test kernels that have cryptoloop and the CryptoAPI options as a standard feature.
If you look at other articles that Daniel Lyons has written for Forbes, you will see that this man is more or less anti-free software. He wrote an article back in June about SCO vs. Linux. In that article he describes linux users as: "like many religious folk, Linux-loving crunchies [are] convinced of their own rightousness..." This is just another article written by a another man who thinks that Linux will go nowhere because it isn't backed by a major corporation starting with an M.
It's my personal opinion not to read too much into the article, and take it just as it is, an opinion -- someone else's view on what is happening.
As it was said many times before me, it is near impossible to make money selling software on linux or bsd systems to people who expect to get it for free, and with the source. However, an effective money-making strategy within the open-source world is making an entrance.
Not everyone that uses open-source OS's is computer-savvy. They might have an idea of what they are doing but still need help a lot of the time, or they may be in a mission-critical possition where they do not have the time to spend asking questions and waiting for potentially unrelated or unhelpful answers on newsgroups or forums. These are the points that you want to capitalize on.
Take MySQL for example. The software is very good and very much free. But with all that work put in, where does it pay off? By selling support to corporate users, or customers in need of expert help from the core developers themselves. Packages start at the bottom with an inexpensive installation help package, all the way up to a package with a hefty price tag that will give the buyer unlimited email dialogue with the team, give the team login access to your server to help with administration, and 24/7 telephone support.
However, most start-ups do not have the resources that have accumulated over time for the MySQL team. The other option, also done by MySQL, is alternate licensing. That is, selling your software under a different, non-free license for a price. For MySQL, buyers of the alternate license can include the database's libraries royalty-free, and not have to worry about their application being inherently GPL-compatible.
Using the Windows idea of shareware, where authors slap a $10 registration on even the most useless software, will be shot down by the open-source community since users simply will not pay for software outside of something worth the money, such as OSS (Open Sound System). Selling product support and alternate licenses have had success by many different companies, and if done right it can be successful for you.