[Ubuntu-PH] Should we be bothered?

[Zak B. Elep]

On 11/16/06, Bradwin Cruz <bradwin at gmail.com> wrote:
> FOSS can be bad for business. How can one make money from free software? Yes
> they could but it would mean a big change in their current business model.

FOSS is bad only if you subscribe to the notion that software is only
and exclusively a product, a `finite' creation of human creativity.
Current events, however, proves otherwise: software is increasingly
becoming a continuous development that stems from continuous human
creativity, limited only by the number of participants involved in it.
 Creativity has many motivations, but arguably the most crucial one is
not personal monetary gain, but an appreciation from the greater
community.

There are arguably as many ways to profit out of free software as
there are with proprietary software.  Free software can be
`commercial' too; that is, one can pay for the software, or for its
warranty/support (remember, many, if not all, free software licenses
explicitly state their presentation as without warranty of
merchantability of fitness for a particular purpose.)  Perhaps some
feel that the larger Open Source players are not making as much money
as the seem to do, but the real WINRARs here are the smaller,
community-oriented software development and support firms that
specialize in key areas.

There is definitely going to be a change in the way how the world will
do business.  Let's not just wait and see: let's get involved.

Cheers,

Zakame

-- 
Zak B. Elep  ||  http://zakame.spunge.org
zakame at ubuntu.com  ||  zakame at spunge.org  ||  zak at orangeandbronze.com
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