[LINK] Oracle & Open Source

[Deus Ex Machina]

Marghanita da Cruz [marghanita at ramin.com.au] wrote:
> Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> <snip>
> >	.[T]he interesting thing about open source is that the intellectual
> >	property is available to all of us,. Ellison told Forbes. .So what 
> >	that
> >	means is that any company can take the Red Hat Linux and use it at no
> >	cost, so long as they.re willing to support themselves. Well, that
> >	actually includes us. We could take the Red Hat Linux, as long as 
> >	we.re
> >	willing to support it. In fact, we can redistribute it to others and
> >	provide support. So why would we buy Red Hat Linux, when we can just
> >	take it for nothing?. "
> <snip>
> ...isn't the question would people buy support for RedHat Linux from 
> Oracle or RedHat?

it goes to the heart of the question as to wether gpl software can be used as a
foundation for a business. what elisson is saying is no it doesnt. he has
no interest in buying red hat because he can just take the code for free.
there is no protection for anything red hat owns, other then a little bit of
wrap around code. there is also no protection by way of intelectual property around its
support services. its entirely exposed. its a bite like the record company that 
new order once was part of, it was offered millions for its rights to
various bands at which point the offerer discovered that there where no
rights and they could just be taken away at will.

it appears the entire myth of support being superior to sales came about because
one of the fsf people sold off a linux support company for some millions years ago.

Vic