zdnet.co.uk: Equilibrium price of proprietary software is nothing

Ben Finney bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au
Thu Nov 6 20:38:33 UTC 2008


"David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com> writes:

> http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/comment/0,1000002985,39541519,00.htm
> 
> Uses the term "free software" rather than "open source", and appears
> to mean libre rather than merely gratis.

Yes. He uses “free software” and contrasts it with “proprietary
software”, which one would expect of someone using free in the sense
of freedom.

The article makes the familiar argument that in a healthy market any
goods will tend to be priced very close to their marginal production
cost, and the marginal cost of producing a new copy of an existing
program is effectively zero; this is acknowledged by free software
vendors, and not by proprietary software vendors.

> (Though the intro and outro use "open source." However, in context I
> think that helps establish that by "free software" he does mean
> "libre" rather than "gratis.")

The intro and outro smell more of something added by an editor, so
that doesn't necessarily mar the credibility of the article.

-- 
 \           “If you're a cowboy and you're dragging a guy behind your |
  `\      horse, I bet it would really make you mad if you looked back |
_o__)                and the guy was reading a magazine.” —Jack Handey |
Ben Finney




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