Mr. Picklesworth
July 26th, 2008, 08:05 PM
So I had a quick conversation with one of my bosses today about Ubuntu. (Working at a store in the computer department). I was just checking for a customer whether it worked using a Live CD - and it indeed did work admirably on one of Sony's all in ones, all the way up until I told it to power off. Somewhere along there the supervisor appeared, so I showed him some things. (Add / Remove programs, NetworkManager, Tomboy and Rhythmbox).
He was very interested in it, which made me happy :)
However, what he was confused about was how this was free! It was then that an incredible realization struck me:
Retailers are routinely selling stuff very close to or below cost, with the idea being that they make an attractive deal and then attach things like peripherals, bags and warranty / support services to actually make money. Sometimes products are sold with the expectations that customers will come back to earn the retailer money further down the line, such as printers with their bizarrely expensive ink, or just by providing really good service so that people come back!
RMS won't like this paragraph since it is an inversion of his own path, but ignoring the real history, free software could be looked at in precisely the same way as that standard act in retail. With free software, there are some minor changes. The product's actual cost is indeed very, very tiny; there is a big one-time cost of actually making it, but the cost of distributing it is insignificant, especially with major setups like Sourceforge. Thus, the honest below cost price for a copy of the software is $0. Since the product is free anyway, there is no harm in being open about its development. Adding to that, why not work together with the community?
With the philosophy established, it would not be surprising if it moved to other material products such as computer hardware.
He was very interested in it, which made me happy :)
However, what he was confused about was how this was free! It was then that an incredible realization struck me:
Retailers are routinely selling stuff very close to or below cost, with the idea being that they make an attractive deal and then attach things like peripherals, bags and warranty / support services to actually make money. Sometimes products are sold with the expectations that customers will come back to earn the retailer money further down the line, such as printers with their bizarrely expensive ink, or just by providing really good service so that people come back!
RMS won't like this paragraph since it is an inversion of his own path, but ignoring the real history, free software could be looked at in precisely the same way as that standard act in retail. With free software, there are some minor changes. The product's actual cost is indeed very, very tiny; there is a big one-time cost of actually making it, but the cost of distributing it is insignificant, especially with major setups like Sourceforge. Thus, the honest below cost price for a copy of the software is $0. Since the product is free anyway, there is no harm in being open about its development. Adding to that, why not work together with the community?
With the philosophy established, it would not be surprising if it moved to other material products such as computer hardware.