Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Free software over freeware

[Simon Ward]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 08:38:58AM +0000, Tim Dobson wrote:
> I'd prefer not to mention the company name or exact field but I wonder  
> if people could summarise the advantages of freeing ones software and  
> what this can encourage as opposed to simply giving it away at no cost.

I think you need to outline again the freedoms that free software gives,
and put across the benefits, possibly with more emphasis on modification
of the software by others.

That works better if the company is still interested in the software.
If other people make improvements they can benefit from them too.  Try
to put across the power of the free software community in development
effort.

Which brings me to another thing:  They could do with having an existing
community surrounding the software if they are to see any benefit from
it.  If nobody knows about it, it’s just going to be another dead
software project, free software or freeware.  If they don’t have much of
a community about the product, they should try to encourage one.
Appreciated this means effort.  It depends how much effort they’re
prepared to spend on it.

If they’re not so interested in the software, you might want to suggest
that they would get more good PR from it if they made it free software
anyway.  A freeware product that you can’t do much with (use and
redistribute?) isn’t as much use to society as free software that gives
people the freedom to examine, use, modify and redistribute.  Something
that is more useful is likely to get more attention.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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