On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 10:30:08PM -0700, Brett Glass wrote:
At 04:57 PM 2/8/2002, Andreas Mohr wrote:
Sure (which I didn't address in my explanation) I merely wanted to drive home the point that that EVERY CENT part is wrong.
The "every cent" part is absolutely true. Let me explain why via a simple scenario. Let's suppose, for a minute, that the user first obtained WINE for free (as he certainly could do!) and then bought an add-on enhancement package made by the third party vendor. This package contains none of the original WINE code -- just patches.
I'm sure you'll agree that, in this scenario, the only thing that the user paid for was the enhancements, not WINE itself. Again, every cent that the user paid was for the enhancements.
True.
Now, the only difference between this scenario and shipping a modified version of WINE is that, in the latter case, the vendor is making things a bit more convenient for the user. Nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
To put it another way: To claim that the vendor who provides enhancements to WINE is "making money off of" WINE is akin to claiming that a company that makes accessories for cars -- say, fuzzy dice -- is "making money off of" the automobile manufacturer because it is enhancing the manufacturer's car.
Nope, there is a very fundamental and fatal difference here.
Or do they sell the accessory at a very moderate price - and also include the car for free ??
Damn, I think I really need a new 1000W car amplifier :) (for the new car that I'll get with that deal)
Just as anyone has the right to make and sell fuzzy dice, anyone should have the right to sell enhancements for WINE. Since WINE is available to anyone at no cost, what the user is paying for, if s/he buys a disc with the enhancements already integrated, is the enhancements.
Do these analogies make things clearer?
Nope :)
*If* the company is providing a separate "Wine enhancements" patch, then they deserve every cent for the *patch*.
If it's integrated into the main tree as a bundled offer, well... ;)
Damn, I didn't really want to waste more time on a relatively useless by-product of the license war :), but somehow I thought I still had to reply to make things clear :)