[ILUG] Re: ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs

[Joseph Kiniry]

Hi Paul,

On 21 Mar, 2005, at 21:03, Paul O'Malley wrote:

> Joseph Kiniry wrote:
>
>> [ again I snip ]
>>
>> Also, how often do you believe that serious modern "for profit" 
>> software development does not require significant capital?
>>
> Going back in time to where I did not answer your question.
>
> I believe the following to be examples of serious modern and for 
> profit software development.
>
> (A) Iona
> (B) Mandrakesoft
> (C) Novell/SuSE
> (D) Redhat
> (E) Sage (not the system administrators guild :))
>
> This list could just keep growing, you just have to look at the work 
> that MYSQL, Sugar CRM, Google.

Ok.  But you still did not answer the question.  You gave me a list of 
some companies, some of which focus on FOSS-based technologies, and 
others which to my knowledge do not.

Are you suggesting that none of these companies required significant 
capital to develop the software that is the core of their businesses?

> As an aside both the GPL and Open Source definitions allow for 
> commerce to take place, and they do this not just to spite some spin 
> doctors.

Okaay... don't know what that means or where it came from...

> Another aside :) My previous TCP/IP comment was referring to the fact 
> that without a common unowned intercommunication standard the net 
> would not have happened. I omitted the information about Linux and 
> other OSS platforms allowed the commercial event (Internet growth) 
> that disrupted  communications so much that we now look at a totally 
> different communications landscape from that of 10 years ago.

But TCP/IP *did* happen without FOSS.  All the original implementations 
predate the GNU Project by over 15 years, for example.

> [Misquote some random thought "What we have in mind is packets on a 
> network for 6 billion plus people."
> Now how disruptive is that? One copy of some operating system with 
> restrictions on how you use it, or Freedom to do your best? The choice 
> is patently yours.]

Um, yeah, whatever.

Confusedly yours,
Joe