I am curious, what is most user's opinions of the future of Open-Source, and the GNU public license?

I have begun to notice that a lot fo the Distros' are now starting to put a heavy emphasis on eith buying their software from the bookstore, or donating money to their company. Has it always been like this or has this trend been starting as of recently?

Also what about the whole Europe thing with was it banning GNU? or no it was software patents right? Oh dear I have gone and confused myself again...

In other words should I expect to be paying $300 in the next few years to use Linux?

Also if this topic has been brougt up already, just tell me what keywords to use to search to find it please...

Mike

"In other words should I expect to be paying $300 in the next few years to use Linux?"

No. The established commercial distributions are all trying to increase their earnings by one method or another and discourage us freeloaders. But you do not have to worry about becoming a captive customer of a company using monopolistic pricing. The cost of entering into the Linux distribution business is very, very small. As Linux grows in popularity there are more and more people entering the Linux distribution business, not always for money. There will always be heavy competition among the distributors. You can find a list of the current distributors here:

http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I think Debian and Slack will always be free!!!

Alright, its not that I don't want to support the people who put forth the time and effort to make Linux great, but it is to my understanding that Linux was built on the philosophy that software should be open and free for all.

Maybe my beliefs are distorted...
Mike

The Kernel and most software is and will remain free. But you pay for the support and as in the case of RHEL and the like you are paying for the suppossed stability. At least you software distro will stay the same for a long time. Of course if you install a free version of Linux and the software is stable you can use it just as well as a commercial version.

I see nothing wrong with distros ASKING for donations. The web space has to be paid for and the developers should get a little for their efforts.

The Fedora philosophy is to build a distrobution of entirely free software.

Places to find info
http://fedora.redhat.com/about/objectives.html
http://www.debian.org/intro/free
http://www.debian.org/social_contract

"it is to my understanding that Linux was built on the philosophy that software should be open and free for all."

Open Source software is open but not necessarily free. People can change money for Open Source software. The fact that it is Open Source means that from a practical standpoint competition will drive the cost of open source software down close to the cost of distribution, which in the case of downloads is nothing.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Again I have no problem with donating money to a company for a distro that I liked and I wish to make sure that it will stay alive and kicking. I just don't want to see Linux become exactly like Windows, where for a moderate price you get a piece of crap (home edition) and to get the more stable version with a stronger network support etc (pro) it costs $300-$400. And $3000 for MS Server? Please Apache is now availible for Windows and runs wonderfully.

Mike

darthtux, thank you for the websites, they have helped put a lot into perspective, it also restored some of my faith in Red Hat.

Thanks
Mike

The GNU is one of the rockingest liscences that exist.
I think that it might mutate slightly... but remain mostly the same.
what happend to the GNU music liscence idea?

don't worry, linux is so cool that those swiming in it won't let the plug be taken out.

titanium_geek

Well...
The beast of Open Source is out of its cage and no power in the world will be able to put it back in.
Even in the highly unlikely event of the whole of Linux going closed-source , a new branch will sprout and flourish.
There's no way stopping it.