Today you company can develop a non free software, with all the restrictions of classic CopyRight, but any person can do the reverse engineering, read the source code, and decide to develop a free software, which does the same things, but has not one row of code that you zeland company wrote.<br>
<br>So you and your company can not to do nothing, because that software, is free software, has not any portion of code and did the same thing of you non free software<br><br>Hahaha ! i say <br><br>Paolo<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
2009/8/5 Chris Were <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cjwere@gmail.com">cjwere@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Haha! Paolo I applaud your idealism, and thank you for your lessons.<br>
There's much I do not know in this field, however consider this:<br>
<br>
We are a small company in new zealand manufacturing steel cutting<br>
machinery, with a touchscreen controller. Our controller is a windows<br>
applicaion and needs a servo card to drive motors. We want to move to<br>
a new platform, eliminate the servo card, go real time in the OS. We<br>
can do this at least technically with windows or linux.<br>
<br>
We could do an opensource controller under linux (or windows if we<br>
chose for that matter), but we as a company would be signing our own<br>
death warrant. The biggest thing which makes people buy our machines<br>
over our bigger multinational competitors is the quality of our<br>
controller, ease of use of it user interface, and flexibilty which<br>
allows us to do allsorts of odd things with our machines. If this<br>
fell into the competitors hands we would lose this advantage, and<br>
eventually the business would likely fail.<br>
<br>
I would guess then that you would recommend to stick with windows, so<br>
as not to taint GNU/linux with commercialism, and I sympathize with<br>
that point of view. However clearly many other companies have built<br>
proprietary, closed source applications on linux, so it is already<br>
somehwat "impure". Further in a vertical market such as ours, if we<br>
comply with GPL, distribute all the OS and distribution source, and<br>
our proprietary object-only application (which I now believe is<br>
legally OK so long as we do it properly), then we are still increasing<br>
the awareness of opensource and the GNU projects, and we still have an<br>
income.<br>
<br>
Anyway we still have not decided how to proceed. We are evaluating<br>
RTX and Intime, windows realtime versions, as well as linux variants.<br>
<br>
My point is that we live in a commercial world, for better or for<br>
worse, rooted in the exchange of commodities, chief of which is money.<br>
"Knowledge" is another important commodity, includng intellectual<br>
property etc, and they are tradeable. Yes, its a flawed system, but<br>
it is a reality. The very computers your GNU software is developed<br>
and written on would not exist without this model.<br>
<br>
Right, I'd better get back to hacking- not sure how to classify this<br>
on my timsheet! :)<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Chris<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 2:24 AM, paolo del bene<<a href="mailto:ninuxpdb@gmail.com">ninuxpdb@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
> 2009/8/4 Chris Were <<a href="mailto:cjwere@gmail.com">cjwere@gmail.com</a>><br>
>><br>
>> The same reason people build non-free cars, sell non-free food, and<br>
>> wear non-free clothes Paolo. Its my job... :)<br>
>><br>
>> And I know its a heated argument out there but i don't think its<br>
>> GNU/linux, its just linux.<br>
>><br>
>> Cheers,<br>
>> chris<br>
><br>
> I am sorry for you, but GNU/linux is the operating system, linux is only a<br>
> kernel, i think to start to write a book about kernel, microkernel, who<br>
> partecipate to the develop, where, why and who is taking advantages with the<br>
> old microkernels....<br>
><br>
> It will be a job that i want to publish under the GNU Free Documentation<br>
> License.<br>
><br>
> To develop and build non free cars, sell non free food and wear non free<br>
> clothes is not good and this create only division between people and<br>
> restriction of their freedom.<br>
><br>
> So to develop non free software is not a good thing.<br>
><br>
> I am happy that you made the example of food, why i listened years ago<br>
> Richard Matthew Stallman speaking about food and he said that any is free to<br>
> do its own cacke, adding or removing things don't like us.<br>
><br>
> For example to prepare an Apple Pie, any person is free to add more<br>
> ingredients to offer to more people. ;-)<br>
><br>
> For example "The Pastiera Napoletana" is made with ricotta and candied<br>
> fruit, but no one forbids us to add the example of pieces of chocolate, this<br>
> would be impossible if the recipe was made with a CopyRight, this has the<br>
> same and the same effect on non free software, because you can not in any<br>
> way modify :-(<br>
><br>
> And this is not good for a community, this is not good for nobody, to do<br>
> money with free software: "watch RedHat" that has got a little of Ethic, why<br>
> it sold itself to microsoft, when decided to introduce KVM.<br>
><br>
> I don't know if you are able to read Italian Language: but if you are able i<br>
> invite you to read: <a href="http://paolodelbene.pbworks.com/hacking" target="_blank">http://paolodelbene.pbworks.com/hacking</a> and<br>
> <a href="http://paolodelbene.pbworks.com/FrontPage" target="_blank">http://paolodelbene.pbworks.com/FrontPage</a><br>
><br>
> Society and sharing with neighbour is more important of money, why you are<br>
> building walls which divide people, you don't help people to share and to<br>
> learn how to use a software, how to modify.... you are inviting people only<br>
> to do drug and drop, copy, paste, cut.<br>
><br>
> People with non free software must to pray "plug&pray" that non free<br>
> software works fine.<br>
><br>
> But there are other example more importants such as: time to develop a<br>
> software, high costs, and the ability to develop a non free software<br>
> entirely on their own, which is very difficult.<br>
><br>
> So is more easy to partecipate to the develop of a free software having the<br>
> possibility to access to the source code, why people import their knowledge,<br>
> and so any user is free to partecipate, there are not restrictions about<br>
> software, why the software which they are developping is free software,<br>
> costs are more less low, and any has got the FREEDOM to use as any want, to<br>
> distribute the software, to do changes, to modify, to do manuals, guides<br>
> under the GNU Free Documentation License, to sell cd's with a good service<br>
> of assistance.<br>
><br>
> This is the difference between a non free software (the users have not any<br>
> access to the source code) and free software (full access to the source<br>
> code), to grant Freedom to any user, things that non free software can not<br>
> to do.<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.gnu.org" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org</a><br>
><br>
> What is GNU?<br>
><br>
> The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like<br>
> operating system which is free software: the GNU system.<br>
><br>
> GNU's kernel isn't finished, so GNU is used with the kernel Linux. The<br>
> combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by<br>
> millions.<br>
><br>
> Sometimes this combination is incorrectly called Linux. There are many<br>
> variants or “distributions” of GNU/Linux.<br>
><br>
> We recommend the GNU/Linux distributions that are 100% free software; in<br>
> other words, entirely freedom-respecting.<br>
><br>
> The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is<br>
> pronounced g-noo, as one syllable with no vowel sound between the g and the<br>
> n.<br>
><br>
> What is Free Software?<br>
><br>
> “Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the<br>
> concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free<br>
> beer”.<br>
><br>
> Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute,<br>
> study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four<br>
> kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:<br>
><br>
> The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).<br>
> The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs<br>
> (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.<br>
> The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom<br>
> 2).<br>
> The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the<br>
> public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the<br>
> source code is a precondition for this.<br>
><br>
> Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,<br>
> 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.<br>
><br>
> Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted<br>
> worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the<br>
> copyright notice, are preserved.<br>
><br>
> Last Updated: $Date: 2009/07/30 12:20:00 $<br>
><br>
> invite to watch:<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html</a><br>
> <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html</a><br>
><br>
> about Free Beer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_beer" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_beer</a><br>
> about Free Coke <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola_%28drink%29" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola_(drink)</a><br>
> about Free Car <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OScar_%28open_source_car%29" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OScar_(open_source_car)</a><br>
><br>
> if you want Free Wear i can sell you as you want for example T-shirts of<br>
> <a href="http://fsf.org" target="_blank">fsf.org</a>, <a href="http://ninux.org" target="_blank">ninux.org</a> and many others.<br>
><br>
> you must only to order and then you have them, so as you can see is not true<br>
> that there are not Free drinks, Cars and Wear.<br>
><br>
><br>
> a minimum of 10 T-shirts and payment with transfer banking without paypal, i<br>
> don't use it why is a non free method of payment.<br>
><br>
> happy hacking<br>
><br>
> Paolo<br>
><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>