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List:       openoffice-discuss
Subject:    Re: [discuss] OpenOffice.org and Firefox on a Linspire CD-ROM for $29.95
From:       Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt () earthlink ! net>
Date:       2004-11-30 23:26:10
Message-ID: 200411301526.10448.einfeldt () earthlink ! net
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On Tuesday 30 November 2004 04:04, Bruce Byfield wrote:
> Here's the quote from Linspire's President that I mentioned
> earlier:
>
>  From http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=5636:
>
> "More than likely, we'll lose money on the product 

Thanks for this link, Bruce.

FLOSS has completely shuffled the cards.  Corporations formerly had 
too much power and money, and employees and consumers got screwed 
as a result.  Now, the more well organized a community is, the 
greater influence we have over the commercial players in the 
market.  IMHO, Linspire offered this product for sale for two 
reasons:  1) to test the waters and learn about offering a free 
product in the market leader's sustaining channels; 2) to develope 
the skills to challenge the market leader in the sustaining 
channels when the time for the "competitive battles" (Christensen) 
arrive; 3) to earn *goodwill* with OOo and Moz, which are two 
pretty well organized communities.  

If left unchecked, corporate capitalism can create monoliths such as 
Microsoft which run rampant over consumers and competitors.  But to 
me, one of the many real beauties of FLOSS lies in the fact that we 
have creating a mitigating counterweight to the merciless onslaught 
of unbridled corporate power.  Adam Smith could not have envisioned 
anything like Microsoft. 

So to bring it back to OOo, IMHO, OOo has benefitted significantly 
from Sun and Linspire and Flexiety etc going out into the 
sustaining channels and testing the waters.  We will all learn new 
ways of getting our great code to newbies from their efforts.  At 
the same time, I do believe that Linspire is well aware that 
significant portions of our community have been griping about not 
being consulted about OOoFf; that many folks didn't like the name; 
and I believe that the DLS concessions that Linspire made in giving 
OOo and Moz half days is some objective evidence of Linspire's 
recognition of the way that they have benefitted from OOo.  

Christian Einfeldt
415-351-1300

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