Possibilities for commercial software?

Richard Boehme rboehme at gmail.com
Fri Jan 26 18:17:32 CET 2007


The point I bring from this is that if, for instance, TomTom has
mapping software that I want to use, I shouldn't have to jump through
hoops to get it. I should just be able to go into the market place, go
to 'Non-Free Software', and buy the TomTom app.

Your argument may be 'but every software for the phone really should
be free - people will write it'. However, if someone hasn't come up
with an absolutely free, modifiable mapping software, I should just be
able to get the proprietary, closed version. It should be easier to do
that than to look in the marketplace, conclude 'oh, this doesn't
exist', and not get an OpenMoko phone because of it.

If you feel allowing proprietary, closed software in hurts the 'free
your phone' spirit, and the market place is closed to them, it only
hurts the amount of applications available for the phone.

I'm going to write a finance application for OpenMoko. Is it going to
be free and open source? Yes. However, if I were trying to live off of
it, it would be very hard to make it free and open source. Even in
areas such as being a waiter where tips are expected and there is a
known steady stream of customers giving tips, tips alone aren't
sufficient.

Thanks.

Richard




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