On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:22:52 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:20:07 -0700, Darren New wrote:
>> 
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> As it's included in commercial distributions,
>>>
>>> Commercial distributions of Linux?  That doesn't count. The more
>>> broken it is, the more money they make.
>> 
>> Um, I don't see how.
> 
> If you can copy it for free, the only business model is to charge to fix
> it. 

Or support it, or consult on it, or train on it....there is a whole 
services model around software that's more than just charging to fix it.

Besides, under the GPL, if you fix it and distribute the fix, you have to 
distribute the code freely as well, so you can't really charge to fix it, 
even.

> Indeed, that's the usual answer to "well, how do programmers make a
> living if all software is free?"

Consulting, custom programming, etc.

Jim

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