Ann said:
> I am neither a businessman nor a programmer
Do you play either on TV? Just kidding.
I have been living like a starving artist for a few years working
for startup tech companies. Its difficult to even stay afloat
until you "cross the chasm" to a level of production that sustains
the business.
If I read the situation correctly, the Freedom Box people did this
work on mozilla as value-add to their product, and to differentiate
from other products. If I was them, I'd hold onto my source code
too. If they don't, someone else can take it and package it up in
Liberte Box, and now they are competing with someone who has their
hard work as part of the product.
I'm a proponent for free and open software, but I don't believe
anyone has a *right* to source code. To those that say they do, I
ask these two questions:
1) What business are you in? What would you do if tomorrow that
business or service was considered free, as in no income?
2) Have you contributed any of your own source code to open source
today?
I have had similar ideas to freedom box for a number of years now.
If I ever to pursue them, I don't see much choice other than
making the source proprietary. Its what feeds and clothes.
-- Doug
