At 01:29 PM 6/9/00 -0500, you wrote: > > > The "high level of support" is where the money can be made (See ACT). > > > > I am assuming you are referring to the fact that ACT is not cheap. > >ACT's support charges are way too high for a "private citizen." But >compared to other vendors that I will not name, ACT works for peanuts. >And ACT's support (during the short period I had it) was the best I had >gotten from anywhere. I don't have any problems with ACTs business model. The software is free and if you need it you can purchase support. The "other" model I feel is wrong... Charging an arm and a leg for the product and then charging the other arm and a leg for FAE support of the product. This seems to be a conflict of interest to me. > > This giving away code or not giving away code is going to be a thorn. True > > we all benefit from free software, however, some of us like to earn money. > > Call me crazy, however, I would hate to see my hard efforts go to a pirate > > who makes money off my labor. There may be some pieces of software > > that is truly deserving of being free because of its common application or > > lack of marketability. These I don't have a problem with. The other types > > of software, well, needs to be determined if it is a give away or some > other > > form of licensing. > >While I sympathize with these sentiments, if you want more people to work >in Ada, you have to give them > >1. something they can work on. > >2. something they think is worth working on. Actually that is why the BSD license is worth a look. The BSD allows you to write an application that runs on a BSD OS without giving away you application (unless you would like to) This is a major flaw in the GPL AFAIAC. >-- >Wes Groleau >http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wgroleau Robin P. Reagan - Software Engineer [log in to unmask] SEAKR Engineering, Inc. v-303.790.8499 12847 East Peakview Avenue f-303.790.8720 Englewood, CO 80011 "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -Albert Einstein-