Re: the free software paradigm [was Re: Amazon used lisp & C exclusively?

On неделя, Юли 23 2006, Kent M Pitman wrote:

Lisp environments now would be now if so many of you were not
spinning your wheels on free Lisps. Hell, a few of them are
scraping by anyway. If certain Lispniks had half a brain and simply
bought a commercial license, maybe franz could stop pricing ACL
like hen's teeth and ease up on their whacky licensing fees.

I agree completely.

I don't. Free Lisps are also a marketing tool for the popularization
of Lisp (although mostly as a side effect). If it weren't they, many
of us wouldn't have even considered it. As we would all be better of
if there were more Lisp globally, I claim that free Lisps are a good
thing, even for Franz. I don't think that if they didn't exist Franz
would have had better sales and subsequently - lower prices. Because
mostly a completed Lispnik, convinced in the value of a commercial
Lisp would consider buying it. He would do it to do business so the
price wouldn't so much matter.

(Which makes it a bit ironic in the context of my grumbling about
AServe.
But I don't think Franz meant to sink my business with AServe--I
think they just didn't understand the full implications of what they
were doing. I like to think they've learned from that, although I
don't know if they've actually changed any policies on free
software. My company certainly changed. It started out hoping to
create and license interesting software, and has largely abandoned
the idea that it can make money that way.)

We all have two choices -
(a) adopt
(b) die

(b) is part of life (even for a Lisp runtime). It happens all the time
- one shouldn't worry - it is not the end - it is only a
transformation.

Many companies know what they do when they release something as free
software. Usually their contribution is a way to attract customers to
their products or services. I too much respect Franz to assume they
aren't one of them. It is part of their (a) strategy.

Stallman is 100% right for one thing - NOONE can stop people from
volunteering. Although, you can probably stop your neighbour from
lawning for free, you can't even consider that for your "Internet
neighbours" as they are too many and too different. Free software is
part of the reality and there can not be any force that is capable of
stopping it.

I also didn't like some of the changes that came with the so called
"democracy" in my country after 1989. And it took me some time to
realize that it is I who should adopt to the environment, as the
environment wouldn't adopt to me. It might sound funny, but it took me
years to realize. In fact there are many people here, who have not
realized it yet, 17 years later.

I very much agree with you that these issues need to be discussed as
in order to know where we are going we need to know where we are
coming from, exactly because of the nature of our community.

As to (a) - it is the question can we innovate in this environment
that constantly troubles me. Not only because the free software is a
major player on the market, but also because the players on this
global market are getting too many and some of them are way too
strong. It happens so often to find an idea of mine realized by others
that it is depressing. It is because this is what I do, this is what
makes me happy and if I can not do it - it is a big problem.

By the way does anybody know how many are the startups in the recent
years who made impact by writing an intelligent piece of proprietary
software for distribution, not for their own use?

I realize that it is not very likely that people will discuss market
opportunities in a news group as they will stop being opportunities,
but at least we might easily discuss what is not an opportunity any
more and it would still be valuable information.

Considering (b) - is there anybody (in similar position) who
successfully transformed and what is his/her new form? I also realize
that it is not very likely that such person would continue reading
this list.

Faithfully,
--
Kamen TOMOV
.

Relevant Pages

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