Re: Open source - Free software

[AlanS]

"v4vijayakumar" <v4vijayakumar@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Sorry, I never thought that there is more than one meaning for "open"
>and "free". I meant "not open" by "free", because this is my problem
>area. Proprietary software is also not open but they are not "free". By
>"open", I meant software that we have access to its source code. 

Who's we? It's very common in the developer tools area, for instance,
to give access to the source for paying customers, whereby the
software isn't free but the source is open. Still more confusing is
software for which the source is free for all to see and examine but
(legal) usage requires licensing and/or payment. On the other hand,
there are sometimes import/export restrictions on open source and free
software so not everybody has (legal) access to the source. It's
hardly a cut and dried business.

As to the original question, I believe in commercial software. Fully
open and free software doesn't provide a sustainable model.