Re: What so special about PostgreSQL and other RDBMS?

"Noons" <wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au> wrote in message news:73e20c6c.0405272342.4782f7a_at_posting.google.com...
> JEDIDIAH <jedi_at_nomad.mishnet> wrote in message
news:<slrncbcgmd.p3c.jedi_at_nomad.mishnet>...
>
> > >> Can someone explain to me how does
> > >> "free software" get sold by its "vendors"?
> >
> > The same way that Sun Solaris, IBM AIX and Oracle 9i does.
>
> Most definitely not.
> And if you need a lengthy explanation to even understand
> the obvious impossibility, I'm sorry but you need some
> basics in linguistics. ANY language. Not just English.
>
> You CANNOT be a seller of what is FREE. Period.
> No buts, no arguments, no semantics, no ANYTHING.

But doesn't it rather depend on *what* is free and what is being sold? Red Hat et al aren't, so far as I know, selling Linux, because it is indeed free. They are selling, however, their skills in knocking together a coherent(ish) distro in the first place, and their after-sales technical service.

It's a bit like printer manufacturers (well, not *much* like it, but bear with me). Their printers are free, but their printer cartridges are hideously expensive. If the market would bear a bit of honesty, we could well have had "free printer vendors".

Alternatively, it could just be the attractive cardboard box in which the CDs are packaged that is being sold.

;-)
Regards
HJR Received on Fri May 28 2004 - 02:50:33 CDT