Why Free

[jethro10]

I've been using Ubuntu for a few months now and I understand that a lot of techie guys write and enhance linux/Gnome/KDE and more for free,

but why does someone setup a company like Canonical to refine the products and give it away for free. Its beyond me.

Dont get me wrong, its briliant, but I don't get it really.
I mean eg. SUSE and RedHat both had an endgame in sight of becoming commerical.

Anyone know why?

Jeff

[Omnios]

Well thinking about it some people have so much money that they are willing to create a great product and or service for free. They get the satisaction of creating something. Then there is the people who achieve personal greatness by creating something and reward is not in dollars but in self satisfaction. Not shure what drives people to do things for free but then again look at a monk, humble selibet and poor.

Guess you have to think outside the wallet to understand what drives people.

Another weay of looking at is is bill and Linus, Hi I have a big wallet or Hi I made this, Now who is your hero.

[earobinson]

One of the goals of Canonical is to provide support (pay for) for companies using ubuntu, It also insures that ubuntu will have funding regardless of what happens to mark.

[Kvark]

Canonical gives it away for free so a lot of people start using it, then it gets widespread and hyped. But when companies start using it they face a problem. You do not want to come posting for help from random users on an online forum when your bussiness is down due to software problems. Just imagine someone comming here and saying "Hey we here at <big newspaper> must have X million newspapers out in the morning but our central Ubuntu servers are acting up, please help fast!!!". Anyone using Ubuntu in their bussiness will want to pay Canonical for official support.

[mostwanted]

For now Ubuntu is free because Mark Shuttleworth is very rich and very interested in free software ideals - a very fortunate combo for us users! Later on, when Mark's nearly endless cash supplies are gone, Ubuntu should have both a bigger community (communities provide free manpower and to some extent monetary donations) as well as an income coming from corporations paying for support, which means it will be able to live all by itself.

If you like using Ubuntu, you should consider donating to the project and/or other free software projects you like. In the open source world, paying for software is not a penalty from the developers, but an expression of gratitude from the users.

[jethro10]

If you like using Ubuntu, you should consider donating to the project and/or other free software projects you like. In the open source world, paying for software is not a penalty from the developers, but an expression of gratitude from the users.

As it happen's I've released several packages in the past as freeware for both Pocket PC's and Palm devices, so perhaps thats my payment back.

But, my software was nowhere near the class act this stuff is !

Jeff

[ZylGadis]

You should really think out of the wallet to understand open-source. Some people, and I mean the best people, do not care for money. There are much more important things.

[Kvark]

As it happen's I've released several packages in the past as freeware for both Pocket PC's and Palm devices, so perhaps thats my payment back.

But, my software was nowhere near the class act this stuff is !

Jeff
Ubuntu is made out of many such small software packages. Small open source programs that don't come anywhere near the class of a complete system on their own. But Ubuntu is just those programs put together to a whole system.

But did you say Freeware or Open Source? Freeware programs are nice to use but thats about it. Open Source code brings development forward because others can learn from it, modify it for new uses, improve it or use it in new programs.

[23meg]

Ubuntu is made out of many such small software packages. Small open source programs that don't come anywhere near the class of a complete system on their own. But Ubuntu is just those programs put together to a whole system.

As wittily summed up by Mark in a Debconf meeting: "Every distro is a fork of upstream."

[commodore]

I think coders like if people use their soft and free of charge software will be more used than costing soft.

[IYY]

If Ubuntu becomes the most popular distro for the workplace, it could make quite a lot of money just for support, installation and certifications.

[jethro10]

Ubuntu is made out of many such small software packages. Small open source programs that don't come anywhere near the class of a complete system on their own. But Ubuntu is just those programs put together to a whole system.

But did you say Freeware or Open Source? Freeware programs are nice to use but thats about it. Open Source code brings development forward because others can learn from it, modify it for new uses, improve it or use it in new programs.

I never understood the difference or impact of the difference at the time... One or two people asked for source and they got it though.
Its more of a linux thing really isn't it. But now I do...

[Kvark]

I never understood the difference or impact of the difference at the time... One or two people asked for source and they got it though.
Its more of a linux thing really isn't it. But now I do...
Thats great. You complied with the GPL long before you even knew about it. Thats the right attitude!

(The GPL says you must either include the source or provide it when someone who has gotten the binary from you asks for it.)

[Iandefor]

Couple reasons.

1) They can sell support packages for companies, who want official-looking support, not some forum.

2) They can still make Ubuntu-based products and sell those- for example, ImpiLinux, which is sort of like Ubuntu, but they sell it with official support packages and they have a lot of goodies that I can't really remember.