Re: Novell-MS Pact: Mono blah-blah

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/73994/index.html
> (Novell Releases Mono 1.2 With Enhanced Support for .NET on Linux)
>
> EASTERBROOK to http://www.catb.org/esr :-) "People willingly pay for 
> quality software even when they can get free (but imperfect) 
> substitutes. Open Office is a free, open-source suite of word 
> processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, but the proprietary 
> Microsoft Office has many more users. Gimp is a free, open-source 
> image editor, but the proprietary Adobe Photoshop enjoys the lion’s 
> share of the market.
>
> ...
>
> The GPL and open-source software have nothing to fear from the 
> antitrust laws."
>
> Oracle et al (Microsoft will probably join soon) will now supply
> ancillary Linux et all (including Mono) support services with a 
> vengeance. Goodbye Red Hat, Novell and IBM in thier "services" 
> business model.
>
> What a perfect work, smarty EASTERBROOK.

Services are not software, and the service market can be monopolized.
That has nothing to do with the GPL per se.  However, the market for
GPL _software_ copies _is_ wide open to predatory pricing: everybody
can pick up a competitor's version and sell it for less.

And that can impact business models quite seriously.

But it is a hurdle that one can't blame Easterbrook for.  It is
inherent to free software as a distribution model.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum