Apple has been very successful at combining open source and proprietary software: they use the community to build the commodity support. For instance WebKit is largely KHTML, but people who use Safari don't know and don't care. Apple concentrates on making the software easy to use for the end user.
Trolltech, MySQL, Artifex etc have been very successful at building a base of customers (programmers) with their open sourced products. They realize that end user software cannot easily be sold as open source, so their business model charges money for a non GPL license. They also get free bug fixes
Xara have (kinda) open sourced Xara Xtreme (minus their rendering libraries). They are hoping to attract a community of programmers to port their tools to Linux and Mac, something they could not afford to do themselves
Cygnus and Code Sourcery are funded by contracts to extend the gnu compiler suite for a particular processor.
Hardware vendors (IBM, Intel, etc) donate programmers to open source projects because it sells hardware
Google funds projects such as Mozilla: a Microsoft monopoly is dangerous to its business model
Notice that in all these cases, Open Source / Free Software benefits the company's business model.
I don't see much benefit for companies making end-user products. A well designed program will not need much documentation, training, consulting or support. I do however see value in releasing the software as open-source when it has to be discontinued.
Back in the days: ZX 81 repair tips
on
Computer Voodoo?
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· Score: 1
- The ZX81 came with 1K of memory. Most people bought an "16K Expansion pack" that connected to the "Expansion bus" which was simply part of the motherboard coated with aluminium. Thing was, the expansion pack connectors tended to be made of copper. After a while, the whole thing oxidized and you had to clean it with some liquid (alcohol? I can't remember). - The ZX81 used tapes, but was very finicky about recognizing them. I remember many a day cleaning my tape-recorder read head with alcohol.
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It's at its lowest value in 20 months against the Euro, and the lowest in 14 YEARS against Sterling. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&si d=a1VgRGm8R6Hc&refer=japan
The only reason it's not yet too bad is that the Yen has also been falling.
Because like us, Pigs are omnivores. As they say, you are what you eat.
- Apple has been very successful at combining open source and proprietary software: they use the community to build the commodity support. For instance WebKit is largely KHTML, but people who use Safari don't know and don't care. Apple concentrates on making the software easy to use for the end user.
- Trolltech, MySQL, Artifex etc have been very successful at building a base of customers (programmers) with their open sourced products. They realize that end user software cannot easily be sold as open source, so their business model charges money for a non GPL license. They also get free bug fixes
- Xara have (kinda) open sourced Xara Xtreme (minus their rendering libraries). They are hoping to attract a community of programmers to port their tools to Linux and Mac, something they could not afford to do themselves
- Cygnus and Code Sourcery are funded by contracts to extend the gnu compiler suite for a particular processor.
- Hardware vendors (IBM, Intel, etc) donate programmers to open source projects because it sells hardware
- Google funds projects such as Mozilla: a Microsoft monopoly is dangerous to its business model
Notice that in all these cases, Open Source / Free Software benefits the company's business model. I don't see much benefit for companies making end-user products. A well designed program will not need much documentation, training, consulting or support. I do however see value in releasing the software as open-source when it has to be discontinued.- The ZX81 came with 1K of memory. Most people bought an "16K Expansion pack" that connected to the "Expansion bus" which was simply part of the motherboard coated with aluminium. Thing was, the expansion pack connectors tended to be made of copper. After a while, the whole thing oxidized and you had to clean it with some liquid (alcohol? I can't remember).
- The ZX81 used tapes, but was very finicky about recognizing them. I remember many a day cleaning my tape-recorder read head with alcohol.
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