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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!nwnews.wa.com!news1.halcyon.com!coho!tzs From: tzs@coho.halcyon.com (Tim Smith) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD Date: 12 Dec 1995 12:20:36 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus, Inc. - Professional Internet Services Lines: 27 Distribution: comp Message-ID: <4ajs2k$1fr@news1.halcyon.com> References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <DJ6IJE.78D@nntpa.cb.att.com> <4a54u5$jj5@josie.abo.fi> <4ahtib$ckq@helena.MT.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: coho.halcyon.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30036 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10256 Nate Williams <nate@sneezy.sri.com> wrote: >(The business we're in is such that we can not stay competive *AND* >completely give away the source code to our software, so that's simply >not an option.) An example of such a business would be one that is a small company trying to compete in an area that Microsoft would be interested in. Give away your source, and next thing you know, Microsoft will have a product that has most of your features, and is bundled with Windows, and you'll be dead. >Now, if we use Linux we must provide the source code to the OS along >with the rest of our product. This increases the size of the >distribution (we need a bigger disk), and we must also provide the user >a way of accessing the software, so our software must be modified to get >at the OS through some hook on our software. I was thinking of using Linux in a stand-alone box, and it didn't seem that bad to me. Most of what I wanted to do could be done as application programs, so there is no need to give away their source. That just leaves the kernel. Since the product was going to be on CD-ROM anyway, so that the customer could reinitialize the box if necessary, it seemed to me that it wouldn't be all that much bother to stick the kernel source on the CD-ROM. --Tim Smith