Re: [Pan-users] Re: OT: freedomware vs... Was: Building Pan on Windows?

[Rob]

On Wednesday 10 March 2010 06:28 pm, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> We wouldn't be having this argument about "give it away for free" if it
> were about making television programs. For well over half a century,
> people have made television programs and given them away for free. 

We have that model in software already, but it's called adware and is 
almost invariably proprietary, regardless of its cost.  Surely you're not 
equating that with free-as-in-freedom software.

For that matter, go on and distribute some House episodes on Usenet and see 
how much of a free-as-in-freedom attitude Fox has about it.  Equating free-
as-in-beer products and services with free-as-in-freedom software and 
culture isn't really helpful to understanding each other's points.

These points aside, once again you're using products of hugely broad 
interest (hit television shows and Google) to suggest a strategy to someone 
whose product is admittedly for a small niche.  When you're making a 
television show for a small niche, you don't get 120 episodes of House.  
You get "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" or "The Guild", if you're extremely 
lucky and have a lot of industry connections.  Otherwise you get Youtube.

> You think that search engine software is hard? It's not hard. 

Rich web-based apps like mail and mapping are hard, though, are not 
necessarily tied to Google's huge datastore (though no doubt it helps), and 
there are really no viable free-as-in-freedom alternatives to either of 
those apps or numerous others in Google's portfolio.  Search became a 
commodity item before Google even came into being, and yes, whoever has the 
biggest index pretty much wins.  Good general-interest web-based apps are 
not a commodity yet.

> But even back on day one, Google
> didn't mind telling people what their algorithm was. 

Pagerank is also patented, making their disclosure of their algorithm a 
moot point, and their specific implementation is one of the most closely-
guarded trade secrets of all time.  

I use Google products throughout every day, 8 years after getting rid of my 
last Microsoft product, but there's no pretending they're a free software 
company the way Red Hat is.

Rob