NT: free software and money

Moritz Sinn moritz at freesources.org
Sun Mar 28 13:53:02 UTC 2004


hi,

i just want to clarify a few things:

1. i'm great fan of free software, i only use free software, when i
   program i program free software and i apologize heavily for writing
   linux instead of gnu/linux (just sometimes happens since its shorter)

2. i don't doubt that you can earn money with free software, i know that
   quite some ppl are quite successfull with that.

3. all i want to say is: i doubt that free software will ever be more
   than a market niche in our economy. i already explained the reasons and the fact
   that the knowledge is shared and because of that the product would be
   cheaper doesn't change it. you can also reuse proprietary software
   and if sharing knowledge would make economic sense, then why is
   "intellectual property" (intellectual monopoly) more important today
   then ever before? why do all companys keep their knowledge secret,
   why are new laws inveted to stop us from sharing our wisdom?
   economy would never be so stupid to demand something which is bad for
   itself! they know exactly what they're doing but they also know that
   this is the best way to gain profit.


i really wish it would be so easy like many of you think it is... i
just doubt it.

i personally think that the free software movement should not only hope
that free software will one day be discovered by the big economy, i
think we should criticise the economy for being unable to really deal
with it.

i think that this is more important than fighting whether one has to say
linux or gnu/linux, this is totally irrelevant anyway because ppl will
always say linux since it sounds better and is shorter. i don't doubt that gnu/linux is
the more correct name.

regards,
 moritz

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