Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again) To : comp.programming From : Scott Moore Date : Thu Sep 29 2005 04:13 pm MSCHAEF.COM wrote On 09/29/05 12:22,: > In article , > Scott Moore wrote: > ... > >>Its a complete canard in any case. To use Red Hat's own example, "would >>you buy a car with the hood welded shut", car makers provide service >>information, allow third party parts to be sold, but DON'T provide all >>the engineering documents and drawings used to make the car, nor are >>they needed. People use cars and get them serviced by other than >>factory dealers, use non-dealer supplied parts, or do all the work >>themselves without that information. > > > The difference is that I can dismantle my car, replace parts (sometimes > with totally different and/or improved parts), and generally work with > pieces of the car at a very fine-grained level. > > With canned software, it's technically challenging to do all of the above, > and often times illegal. > > -Mike Also the difference is that with a car, parts wear out. Software does not wear out. Few people working on a car redesign it at the same time. Certainly a would agree that there should be such a thing as software components, and such a market does exist, both with and without source. Very commonly when you get a compiler and RAD platform, programming an application there consists of plugging existing classes into a greater whole, and those classes don't come with source. Further, Microsoft (yea, the ultimate evil) is very much in the component business since most of their APIs come in the form of .dlls. In fact, based on that idea you could say Microsoft is well ahead of many vendors at providing reusable software components with open interfaces. There's yet another difference with cars. A auto maker could well provide you with all of the engineering information, knowing that it is unlikely that customers would have the means to copy a car, and knowing that they stand a much better chance of finding out and taking to court a knock-off car maker considering only a large company could do that. .