[thelist] GNU / GPL

[Ken Schaefer]

Some companies make money out of services alongside products. And other companies don't. It's all about different business models catering to different parts of the market.

There are plenty of successfully companies that aim to do away with "service" (or provide well stated, restricted, services) and instead provide something else of value to the customer (cheaper products? More rapidly changing products? Or whatever).

You only have to look at the dazzling array of products (and services) out there available for purchase in just about any industry to see this (airline flights, for example).

So, just because one company can make a living with a particular business model, doesn't mean that every company should also be doing that, or even that every companu could if they wanted to.

Different parts of the market want different things.

Cheers
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Joel D Canfield
Sent: Saturday, 27 October 2007 1:28 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] GNU / GPL

> Companies like Red Hat and Novell are making money off of open source
> software right now.  They are absolutely clear in their sales
> pitch that
> you are buying their *services*.
>
> Phil

which is what successful businesses do anyway, even if they do include a
physical object with their service, be it a cup of coffee or a car.

(not to diminish the other interesting points you make, Phil)

joel