Re: SEU vs. ?

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Richter wrote:
> Does it require client access?  my theory being that IBM must make a lot of
> $$ from selling client access on windows, while a Linux client access would
> have to be low priced or free as part of shareware spirit of that platform.
> The thinking would then be, why move off of Windows where a good profit is
> made, to a platform where there is no profit.

There's no reason you can't charge money for Linux software. Many 
companies do. There's also no requirement that all software running 
on Linux has to be open source. On the other hand, there's a lot of 
good software that is open source and freely available. And so if 
you do want to sell something in that arena, there'd better be good 
value for the money.

In some cases, you have a choice of buying a piece of software or 
downloading a free version of the same product. For example, you can 
pay for StarOffice and get support, or you can download OpenOffice 
(which is pretty much the same thing) for free and get no support.

Cheers! Hans