Subject: Re: Lack of Cygwin contributors? Was: How is textmode /binmodedetermined ...
From: <[email-masked]>
To: Charles Wilson <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 11:40:39 +0900

> 1. free(beer) != free(speech) libre != gratis. GPL != 'you
> cannot charge money'. OH NO!

That's correct. I know this. It's absolutely fundamental.
I don't think I was disputing it, and if I gave that impression,
I apologise.

> That means that people are making money RIGHT NOW from
> those free software products you've contributed to in the past.

Actually, no; ActiveState are making money from support and
distribution. They also pay people to develop free software, so
some people on a project are getting money directly for their
contribution and some aren't. I'm not, incidentally.
But that's fine with me. They don't sell licenses.

It's the way most FSB's make money, and I would usually say
here `people like RedHat included': support, training, consulting,
customisation, distribution, certification. There are plenty of
extremely fruitful avenues to go down before it gets to time
to sell licenses.

People are making money - indirectly - from code I contributed.
That's fine with me. They don't sell licenses.

I'm not against people making money from my code. I do it. That's
fine with me. But I cannot and will not sell commercial licenses.
That wouldn't be.

Yeah, free software means I can't do anything about this. It's
perfectly within their rights. Fine. That's exactly the point of
free software, and I support the aims of free software completely.
I'm *glad* I can't do anything about this.

But I don't have to subscribe to, support and encourage what people
*do* with free software if I don't agree with it - this is a
different matter altogether. And I can do something about that: I
can vote with my feet and spend my developing time elsewhere.

> (You HAVE contributed to other open source projects in the past.
> Riiight? Or are you just whining?)

Yeah, I spend most of my waking life developing, documenting and
fixing bugs in one. I don't know if you've heard of it; it's called
Perl. I also help out on a couple of little projects, in my copious
free time. Finally, I spend a significant amount of what's left
talking with various companies and trying to work out with them how
best to embrace free software in their development.

As they say, a credentials dick-size war on the net is not usually
a good idea. Please let's try and keep this from descending to
ad hominems, if at all possible.

Simon
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