Re: the free software paradigm

Marcus Breiing wrote:
We're talking about what to charge for *existing* bits of *software*,
not about shoes or apples or oranges.

Note, however, that many pieces of hardware have significant development costs. Just anecdotally, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the cost of an AMD chip is the design of it, and about 1/3 the cost of an American-made automobile is the design cost. How much of the cost of life-saving drugs is design cost vs manufacturing cost? How many life-saving drugs would exist if companies designing them were unable to charge more than a couple precent above the cost of actually manufacturing and distributing them?

--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
This octopus isn't tasty. Too many
tentacles, not enough chops.
.

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