On Tue, Jan 01, 2008 at 10:52:16PM -0500, Hal Vaughan wrote: > On Tuesday 01 January 2008, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > On Tue, Jan 01, 2008 at 05:08:20PM -0500, Hal Vaughan wrote: > > > On Tuesday 01 January 2008, Paul Johnson wrote: > > > > ... > > > > > > Hardware has scarcity which software lacks. There's no economic > > > > reason to sell software. Programmers should sell their service > > > > since trying to sell the product is, by definition, going to piss > > > > customers off and limits their freedoms. > > > > > > There is, though, economic reason to not release software code. > > > > > > If I had to open source the part of my system that goes on my > > > clients' computers, someone who didn't put in the effort to develop > > > it would start a company without the development costs and cause me > > > serious damage. > > > > I think this is often an over-inflated worry. ... > > > > If your code isn't sufficiently complex to force this situation (I > > don't mean gratuitously complex, BTW), then maybe your code isn't > > worth all that much anyway? (no comment intended on your code > > specifically, just talking generalities here) > > Most of the work is done on my local servers, but what I do is something > many companies do, at least up to a certain point. I've gone out of my > way to make sure the software on my clients' computers is as simple as > possible. Basically all the work is done here, preparing it for a few > final steps that take place o their system. This is a large part of > what makes my stuff different from almost anyone else. > > I can control my system, I can't control my clients' computers, so I > want a minimum of possible errors on their computers. > > I would not want to make it easy for someone to grab my code and > compete. Maybe later, but I'm still within a year of finishing all the > development work. I can understand. And, as I said, I am not attempting to discuss your particular usage. Just the idea of open vs. closed source in general and the economic arguments in favor of clsoed source. And frankly, I'm not sure where I stand in a situation like yours. Likely in a similar position. ... > > It would level the playing field if everyone were on the same field. > They're not. true. A
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