[wellylug] Linuxant gone commercial!!!

[Damon Lynch]

On Fri, 2003-10-31 at 06:41, Rob Stockley wrote:

> > 
> > I also belive that conexant, should provide the drivers for it's
> > hundreds of users, as the driver for a winmodem, is part of the
> > product, which has been brought.
> 
> Would you be happier paying $50 for the hardware and nothing for the
> driver? In this case there would be no immediate commercial incentive
> for the developers to release an updated driver. 

For the product and the open source driver, absolutely.  What happens if
the company goes out of business and the driver is still closed
source?   Or if they decide they won't update it for a long period of
time after gcc changes?  Bye bye medium term to long term use of your
hardware.  It happens more than you might realise.

> 
> I'm quite happy paying for software I really want to run. I know that my
> $$ will help keep the linux revolution alive.
> 
The linux revolution is thriving only because it is open source.  Giving
$$ to companies with policies like this may only stunt the growth of the
movement, doing the opposite of what you intend.

Damon