[BC] DRE ... a way to get it going

[Cowboy]

On Sunday 08 May 2005 01:21, Clive Warner wrote:
> < you start DRE with "open" programming.
> <Everything is in the clear.  All the subcarriers.
> <
> <What is it with corporations today that everything
> <is profit from day one?
>
> Sounds like 'UNIX" vs "Microsoft" !

 Kinda sorta, but not really.

 UNIX is a trademark owned by these days, The Open Group.
 They got it from Novell in 1994.
 Prior to that, UNIX was a commercial product, never free.
 ( and generally QUITE expensive )
 These days, it's a conformant specification.

 Micro$oft was also never free, but he saw the writing on the wall,
 and licensed it cheap, to gain market dominance.

 Linux was and still is, a tradmark on a kernel held by Linus Torvalds.
 Several systems exist today, some free and some not, based on Linux.
 The source code for Linux is licensed under GPL, and the copyright
 is held by Linus and others who wrote it.

 The history of Linux holds that it is free, and that's basicly true, as Linus
 was after a version of *nix that could be afforded by a college student.
 He =was= after a "profit" if you will, in the rest of "a system" that would
 or could run on his kernel.
 A whole bunch of folks contributed, and systems were built around Linux,
 most of which are "free".
 The Free Software Foundation has contributed heavily, and theirs
 ( a derivative of the HURD ) is one of the more popular, keeping the price point
 low, free, or nearly free.
 FSF is about the only entity not after "profit" in this effort, though many, many
 of the individuals contributing are after mostly their 15 minutes of fame each,
 and a shot at getting their name(s) in lights rather than cash.

 Others, have made some nice profit off of "free" products and services.