Re: Using octave runtime in a commercial product

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

2009/11/13 Eduardo Fuentetaja <address@hidden>:
> Well, I trust our customers (mostly law enforcement organizations), but I
> don’t trust our competitors at all.

Why would your customers give your code to your competitors?

And if they did, how would your competitors using that code hurt you,
since it would only mean that they would have to release source as
well?

The GPL levels the playing field. In free code which is commercially
viable (e.g. Linux), all companies contribute to the code on the same
terms. IBM gives patches to Linux because it benefits IBM; Intel
provides drivers for Linux because it's good for Intel to do so. This
tangentially also benefits others companies, but that's not why IBM
and Intel are doing it.

I think Octave is equally commercially viable, but having such a huge
competitor as Matlab has made it difficult so far to outshine it.