Re: What so special about PostgreSQL and other RDBMS?

On Sun, 30 May 2004, wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam wrote:
> Galen Boyer allegedly said,on my timestamp of 30/05/2004 5:16
> AM:
>

>> They can't sell free software.  They can sell ope-source
>> software.

I'm not sure we are choosing the proper term for the same reasons.

> But beware: free software is not just Linux.

Linux isn't free software. It is open-source.

> open source software is not just Linux.

But there are other non-linux solutions that are open-source. Need a web server? Apache. Need an EJB server, JBoss. Need a solid GUI tier, use Struts... Sure these aren't "applications", but that wasn't the Open Source promise. I do believe it was the free-software promise, but I'm not sure on that.

> What people can sell is open source software, not free
> software.

Although "Free software" seems to mean, no money, it truly means "Freedom", and Open source isn't "Free software". Open source isn't even guaranteed to be monetarily free. You want to download and install it yourself, you can get it for free.

Free software is quite restrictive in its usage within applications. If you were to include "free software" as part of your application, your application must be free. Open source is much less restrictive. One can build an application, writing their own code base but deliver it along with embedded open-source code, and still sell the app.

-- 
Galen Boyer