Re: getting hardware data
- Posted by m_sabal May 23, 2012
- 1486 views
I don't usually get into these discussions, but I think there are some unhealthy opinions regarding open source that need to be addressed. While some may have political motivations for advocating open source software, the practical reason is that OSS is traded by barter rather than by cash. I will invest my time to improve the software in exchange for your time doing the same. Some niche markets, however, simply don't have enough users for the barter system to work (how many people on this list are writing CAD software to drive a garment pattern optimizer and stack cutter? anybody?) In those markets, the investment will have to be recovered monetarily rather than by an exchange in kind. The hardware licensing is necessary because most businesses are lazy rather than unethical. I have 10 new users that need this software tomorrow, but it will take a week to get the licensing arranged. Problem is, I never get around to actually licensing the additional copies. For some products, that can be over $100,000 of lost revenue that can easily be rectified by tying the license to a unique hardware attribute, like hard drive serial number or MAC address. The request seems perfectly natural to me. There's plenty of room in the world for parallel proprietary and open source solutions, and let the free market determine the winner.
