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Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Wells who wrote (1135)	9/9/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: Mitch Blevins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1794

But my experience in life has taught me that if you have multiple people contributing to a project, and some of those people are making a tremendous amount of money while others are making very little, those that are making less money will not long be satisfied - and they will wish to make as much money as they see their colleagues making. This seems like a natural human trait, and I couldn't argue with you about that one. But I don't agree with your conclusions that this will cause people to stop working on software unless accompanied with a more restrictive license. For one thing, the reaction would be misplaced. This "project" that people are working on is not really a single project, but rather thousands of individual projects. Also, developers who work under a Free license are usually acutely aware of the ramifications of using that license, and will realize that... RedHat does not make money by selling software. RedHat has made money by providing service, brand name recognition (advertising), and by participating in the current Market climate with an IPO. The software, or the project that the developers are working on, is not being exploited by RedHat. In fact, I can make as many copies of RedHat CDs and sell them myself for $2 if I wanted. If you go to cheapbytes.com you will find just one of many companies that is doing precisely that. So for a developer to change the licensing terms that he/she works under just because of the "RedHat phenomenon" would be folly. It might make sense for me to make my own distribution and have my own IPO if I am jealous of RedHat, but not to stop working on software under my own terms. I like to think that most developers are bright enough to realize this also. Increased competition due to others entering this business may (or may not) be detrimental to RedHat, but not to Open Source in general. In fact, the competition will strengthen the Free software community. I may have confused some of your arguments that were directed at RedHat-the-comapany as applying to "Open Source". The two are distinct things, and I am only offering arguments about the latter. -Mitch