BSD Mall : to hell

[Andrew L. Gould]

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 12:45:32 GMT
Miguel Lopes Santos Ramos <miguel at anjos.strangled.net> wrote:

> > From dan at langille.org Fri Feb 24 12:33:48 2006
> > From: "Dan Langille" <dan at langille.org>
> > To: Miguel Lopes Santos Ramos <miguel at anjos.strangled.net>
> > Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:33:35 -0500
> > Subject: Re: BSD Mall : to hell
> > Cc: advocacy at freebsd.org
> >
> > On 24 Feb 2006 at 12:22, Miguel Lopes Santos Ramos wrote:
> >
> > > Wherever there's people making money out of free software there's
> > > dishonesty. 
> >
> > This is untrue.  Many people make money out of free software.
> > There is a long history of it and all of it quite honest.
> 
> Sorry. I meant in the CD packing business.
> 
> How can it be explained that Red Hat EL sells for a price comparable
> to some versions of Windows? At least, at Microsoft they had the
> costs of producing themselves a new, modern OS from scratch.
> What about some versions of linux totally based on free and GPLed
> software selling for $40-50? The price of media?
> _______________________________________________

I don't think it can accurately be said that Red Hat is simply in the
CD packing business:

1. Remember that Linux is just the kernel.  Red Hat has to assemble the
OS and create processes for installation and maintenance.

2. When you buy Red Hat EL, you're also buying support and
accountability.  These things are impossible to provide without payroll
expenses.

3. Red Hat employs many open source developers, many of whom work on
projects other than Linux (postgresql, for example).

Andrew Gould