Sorry forgot to put in this snippet

5. Why to charge for software, and why not to charge.

This question really translates to a couple of other questions. a. Is the concept of your software so radical that you and only you could have thought of it? b. Did you have to do an amazing amount of research to develop the coding methods you used? c. Did you use all your own code or was much of it obtained from outside? d. Did you pay for outside help? e. How many people are going to benefit from your code? f. Are these the same people who write code that you benefit from?

-----Original Message----- From: Pillai, Gishu R (GE Energy) Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 1:39 PM To: 'GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India' Subject: RE: [ILUG-BOM] Opensource/Free Software and stuff...

Ok methinks it's time to Reply. I knew the meaning of Open Source... but then I prefer to think of it as follows If you "value" add on to the source and then charge a lil something, then it is quite ok.

But I don't think downloading the content of the 4 cds and then burning them onto CDs (I got a writer, so I don't wanna pay for this.), is VALUE-ADDITION.

So when someone (I don't care if it is Stallman) wants me to pay 5 times this, I am surely gonna ask him to take a hike..

If linus had started charging a fee for everything that he wrote, I don't think Linux would be half as popular as it is today.

Gishu.

-----Original Message----- From: linuxers-bounces@mm.ilug-bom.org.in [mailto:linuxers-bounces@mm.ilug-bom.org.in]On Behalf Of Philip Tellis Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 1:23 PM To: Linux Users Subject: [ILUG-BOM] Opensource/Free Software and stuff...

I'd written this mail to the list in October 2000. I guess it's time I posted it again.

Here: http://db.ilug-bom.org.in/lug-authors/philip/docs/oss-fs.txt