Free products can generate real money
,----[ Quote ]
| Ask yourself this: if Linux didn't exist, would Google? Would Facebook,
| without that and PHP, the free scripting language that even people like me
| can scrape by in (my PHP is about as good as my French), and Apache, the free
| web server, and MySQL, the free (and open source) database? "Free" underpins
| a huge amount of effort on the internet now, and that translates into real
| world commerce: Amazon uses those free building blocks too for its business,
| which is largely about shipping atoms, not bits.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/05/charlesarthur
That's One Way To Reinvent A Company
,----[ Quote ]
| Jonathan Schwartz wants to return Sun Microsystems to glory by giving away
| its software.
|
| [...]
|
| Where McNealy was dismissive of Linux, Schwartz has tried to woo the millions
| of developers and users of the open-source code. Sun is working on a version
| of Solaris called Project Indiana that would update the clunky look and feel
| with something more like the friendlier interface of Linux. Says Peter T.
| Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, an advocacy group
| that has helped marshal the efforts of Linux developers: "There's lots of
| interest in Solaris. It could certainly gain some traction."
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_42/b4054059.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives
Is Sun giving up its future by giving away its software?
,----[ Quote ]
| Sun is banking on a snowball effect in these properties using Sun. If Sun can
| get them from using LAMP to building on SAMP (Solaris, Apache, MySQL,
| PHP/Perl/Python), it may have a serious game on its hands. And if it can
| forestall defections on Wall Street from its Unix to Red Hat's Linux, then it
| will be a doubly effective move.
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9791786-16.html
Related:
Sun CEO: "Proprietary"...did more damage to sun than any market downturn
,----[ Quote ]
| Sun has discovered the exact same thing. Freedom sells. Or, rather,
| services around freedom sell. The freedom itself is, well, free.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/04/sun_ceo_proprie.html
|
|
