Re: [RE: RPG Code on the NET]

["James W. Kilgore" <qappdsn@xxxxxxx>]

Hans,

Giving away software is akin to banks giving away toasters.  It brings in 
customers
for some -other- profit making venture.

This is the simple economics of "free".  Like  the current frenzy of "free" 
PC's.
Read the fine print.

If Dell or Gateway or Compaq or etc. owned Windoze they could give it away 
"free"
to reduce their competitive price in a hardware/software bundle.  Thereby 
gaining
market share and bottom line dollars.

Just imagine how many AS/400's could be sold if IBM gave even V3R7 free!  Charge
for the servers and compilers as any other platform does. Include basic TCP/IP 
and
maybe a Telnet 5250e server.  With the wealth of application software we 
wouldn't
be justifying "total cost of ownership", we could kick some b*** from the first
bid!

Oh, I got too excited there for a moment.

I forgot, IBM is transitioning to a software/services business model.  They 
can't
give software away, that's how they make money.  Now if they stayed with making
hardware and providing solutions, software could become just another "bait".  
Heck
the cost of development could come out of the advertising budget for all the 
good
it's done ;-}

Regards,
James W. Kilgore
qappdsn@ibm.net

boldt@ca.ibm.com wrote:

> I'm no expert at economics, but as I understand it, the Free Software
> movement can be explained completely using capitalistic economic models.
> Although it looks and smells like communism, it really isn't.

<<snip>>

> I agree there is a risk that the youthful idealism that drive the Free
> Software movement might just dry up, but in this case, it is economic
> theory that's driving the price of s/w down to nothing, not the idealism.
> There is a demand for free software, and there is the ability for people
> to provide it (regardless of their motives).
>
> Cheers!  Hans
>
> Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com
>

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