Re: sustainable development

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Am Dienstag, 22. September 2009 03:15:34 schrieb address@hidden:
> > The means they use is to provide a Pro version which offers improved
> > performance by some changes which everyone could do himself in the
> > sources.
> 
> Err... I don't quite get it. So is it free software what they sell? Do
> they provide the modified sources?

Jupp - it's just that nobody takes the trouble of compiling those. 

All that "Pro Version" stuff is in my view just a very neat marketing stunt - 
and they make very good money from it. 

What it really brings: More connectsions (configuration change) and a bit more 
aggressive downloads (configuration change). Essentially they lessen a config 
restriction - but I could do that myself by building from SVN. 

Giving people prebuilt binaries and an automatic update service can be quite a 
nice deal. And the basic version gets people fixed on the product :) 

> > You won't be able to create a self-running money machine, though.
> 
> Very few people manage to do that with proprietary software. So few in
> fact that it's insiginifcant. I don't think it's even appropriate to
> mention it in this context... It's just not true that people writing
> proprietary software get richer than those writing free software.

Maybe my view is bent by M$ - and Apple (proprietary GUI). These are the ones 
I mostly see as making big money (with products for regular people). 

Best wishes, 
Arne

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