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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux:35336 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1827 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!uunet!auspex-gw!wally From: wally@Auspex.COM (Wally Bass) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: Summary of Linux vs. 386BSD vs. Commercial Unixes Message-ID: <17567@auspex-gw.auspex.com> Date: 19 Apr 93 00:09:51 GMT References: <1993Apr15.225354.18654@samba.oit.unc.edu> <1993Apr17.190517.4276@serval.net.wsu.edu> <1993Apr17.205715.11278@coe.montana.edu> <1993Apr17.231000.103368@zeus.calpoly.edu> Sender: news@auspex-gw.auspex.com Followup-To: comp.os.linux Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara Lines: 42 Nntp-Posting-Host: alpha1-e5.auspex.com In article <1993Apr17.231000.103368@zeus.calpoly.edu> jemenake@trumpet.calpoly.edu (Joe Emenaker) writes: [stuff deleted] >Now, it really, Really, REALLY angers me to think of these big >corporations taking public-domain and otherwise free software and >distributing it as their own and actually getting money for it. How >DEVOID of work-ethic does some have to be to pull a stunt like that? And >you're saying that you're pleased as punch if DEC can just ftp a copy of >386BSD and start selling it for $500/copy as DEC-BSD/PC or something?!?! > >That makes me ill. It really does. ... Why does it make it make you ill? If someone is willing to pay DEC/whoever $500 for the software, then it must have been worth it to the buyer. The buyer is a winner, in getting something of value that he/she (apparently) would not otherwise have gotten (for whatever reason), the software is finding even wider usage (which is presumably what the creator would have liked), and DEC/whoever provided a real service to the customer in getting the software to that customer. If the DEC/whoever price is a rip-off, then that creates an opportunity for someone else to provide whatever the customer wanted at a better price. That's what free markets are all about. Trying to impose restrictions on who (else) can charge what for what only clogs channels, and subtracts value. In a free market, lots of people add value which is substantial and easily overlooked, such as a distribution channel or more convenient packaging or bundling. Why are you so determined that *YOUR* 'makes-me-ill' feelings are a better measure of value-added than what the free market itself has to say? Most Socialist economies are driven by similar irrational fears, where there is a paranoid focus is on preventing people from getting 'more than they deserve' (as determined by the state), rather than a willingness to think about the effectiveness of the system or to listen to what a free market is saying about the values of things. Indeed, societies can and have prevented entrepreneurial activities, but history has shown (with the USSR being a wonderful example at the moment) that this approach is only a net negative for the people at large in such a society. Wally Bass