Comments on: The cost of open source http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/ A wrist slit away from being an emo kid Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:07:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Chris Worfolk http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36383 Chris Worfolk Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:22:34 +0000 http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36383 Yes you can charge at POS but if you're using GPL anyone else can come along and start allowing people to download it for free once they've got it. Yes you can charge at POS but if you’re using GPL anyone else can come along and start allowing people to download it for free once they’ve got it.

]]> By: Kieran O'Shea http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36360 Kieran O'Shea Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:07:30 +0000 http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36360 Are you forgetting Chris that open source does not mean financially free? One can still charge for a piece of software at point of sale and provide the source along with the binaries...... Are you forgetting Chris that open source does not mean financially free? One can still charge for a piece of software at point of sale and provide the source along with the binaries……

]]> By: Norman http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36319 Norman Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:53:15 +0000 http://blog.chrisworfolk.com/2007/03/22/the-cost-of-open-source/#comment-36319 What you say is true of most industries. Take the supermarket industry, if there wasn't a massive giant in the sector - Tesco in the UK, Wal-Mart in the US - then none of the other, cheaper, supermarkets could survive effectively. If Tesco didn't plow millions of pounds into improving its business model, there would be nothing for anyone else to copy in terms of logistics, supply, layout and business principle. I agree that open source software is useful and, in the software market, necessary to keep costs down but as you say it needs an effective and, moreover, dominant "major player" providing the closed source option to make the open source necessary! What you say is true of most industries. Take the supermarket industry, if there wasn’t a massive giant in the sector - Tesco in the UK, Wal-Mart in the US - then none of the other, cheaper, supermarkets could survive effectively. If Tesco didn’t plow millions of pounds into improving its business model, there would be nothing for anyone else to copy in terms of logistics, supply, layout and business principle.

I agree that open source software is useful and, in the software market, necessary to keep costs down but as you say it needs an effective and, moreover, dominant “major player” providing the closed source option to make the open source necessary!

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