[REBOL] Multimedia quality (was) One disk OS + REBOL Re:(8)
From: galtbarber:mailandnews at: 25-Aug-2000 15:33
Whatever Rebol code you wrote for the dongle could
easily be read by devious miscreant ne'er-do-wells.
People trying to sell expensive Rebol products may
be frustrated by Rebol's open-ness.
Some commercial systems are so large and complex
and ever changing that they dont fear customers
having the source, since if the user wasn't registered they
wouldn't get the constant flow of bugfixes and support they
need to keep the blasted monstrosity going.
Also big corporate customers tend to play by the book and
buy most of their software and are much more
reliable in this way than the typical individual user
for personal use.
Small software that just works would however be
copied endlessly without protection, is my guess.
I like free sw as much as the next guy, but it is
harder for people to find time to volunteer rather
than time that earns them income, to work on a
software project. Linux is pretty amazing,
but not all sw is going to be developed that way.
The vast majority of people bought their Linux
from somebody, like RedHat, who bundles it
with apps and so on...
If sw is all that you do and you don't have some
other way to make money, then your sw work has
got to pay or you starve. We still don't seem to have
a way to bridge the gap between commercial production
where all is paid and owned and controlled and re-inventing
the wheel and dominating the market, and freeware cooperatives
where it is friendly and less controlling but where
no one gets monetary recompense.
So, what else is new?
