[ox-en] esr on software costs
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 13:46:52 -0500 (EST)
hi,
Eric Raymond makes an interesting point in
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105202,00.html
suggesting that mass-produced closed-source software for sale will go away
on its own when PC prices drop far enough, purely for cost reasons. I
guess that implies that companies not wanting to use open-source software
will stay closed-source, but give the software away. It will just become
part of the development overheads of the PC. Would that be viable for
them? As esr says, it seems to be working for mobile manufacturers..
But although his argument sounds logical applied to the OS or bundled
software that comes with the system, I don't see why charging more
for the software than the hardware costs should be a problem for
non-bundled software (EDA software is an example of this - it's
quite common for it to cost more than the system it runs on).
Or not?
Graham
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