LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Matthew Tippett <mtippett@ticons.com.au>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:20:27 +0930 (CST)

Re: More Meeting Information (fwd)

> Linux is not necessarily open source.
> In fact, if all linux applications have to be open source, then
> probably linux is doomed to a small future, especially if
> open source becomes free source.

Snip!

Taking this on board.  Venture capital will always be available for
products that are proprietary and closed in nature.  It is absoluletly
independent from the Operating Environment.

The crux of the the issue is that the requirements are that the 
intellectual property must be yours to sell.  With the Open Source 
environment the IP is available for anyone to sell.  It is not
that there is no market, it is that there is no competitive benefit.

Red Hat don't have many IP rights to the software that they have
developed and released under GPL.  And yet within in the environment
they have sold a product which is a collection of products which 
they don't own but have a right to sell.  As a consequence they have
a definite branding in this OSS environment.  They are now beginning to
get venture capital from quite a few Fortune 500 companies.

This sort of thing is what I would like to talk about in the panel.

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards,

Matt




-- 
Matthew Tippett          - +61 416 006 047     - mtippett@ticons.com.au
Linux Support Initiative - BETA Testers Wanted - http://lsi.ticons.com.au/
Tippett Information Consulting Pty Ltd -       - http://www.ticons.com.au/

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