Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on December 10, 2002 08:02 AM
Perhaps you guys are not quite old enough to remember it, but there was "Open Software" a long time before it became an acronym.... It was called "Buttonware" and though it was "freeware", the author made a very good living for himself charging for telephone support (this was before Bill G and Al Gore "discovered" the internet...) - while staying home, keeping his employee ratio (no marketing or "licensing police") to a minimum and doing what he loved best - hacking code. Well, eventually the author decided that the user base was growing a little to large for his preferred lifestyle (not because of profit problems), so he retired - leaving the biz to other little startups such as Micro$oft... Sorry, but I cant see how you can possibly lose with OSS unless you really dont have a product to begin with or your job is to take potential clients to dinner or to audit licensing.....
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Re:Way to miss the point!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 10, 2002 08:02 AMIt was called "Buttonware" and though it was "freeware", the author made a very good living for himself charging for telephone support (this was before Bill G and Al Gore "discovered" the internet...) - while staying home, keeping his employee ratio (no marketing or "licensing police") to a minimum and doing what he loved best - hacking code.
Well, eventually the author decided that the user base was growing a little to large for his preferred lifestyle (not because of profit problems), so he retired - leaving the biz to other little startups such as Micro$oft...
Sorry, but I cant see how you can possibly lose with OSS unless you really dont have a product to begin with or your job is to take potential clients to dinner or to audit licensing.....
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