Asserations

[matthew_heusser at mcgraw-hill.com]

Folks:

   Here's an idea that I hope can keep us from falling into
flame wars.  In the future, If you want to refute an assertion
of objective fact, let's try to provide references.

  For example, someone recently posted that Red Hat was
a profitable company that shrink-wraps and sells open source
software.  I pointed to Red Hat's SEC Filings of 20 July, 2001,
(Available from Investor Relations off www.redhat.com), that point
out that that is not, in fact, the case.

  Please, let's not get into the "is not / is too" game.  Let's stick
to objective fact, and objective experience where it is appropriate.
(Such as when Steve Lane pointed out that yes, there are wireless
systems that have HTML-like widget sets. That information I  do
appreciate.)

  Otherwise, we won't learn anything from each other.  And, opinionated
as I am, that's why I'm here.

Matt H.
PS:

 1.
 while (<MYPREVIOUSPOSTS>)  {
s/ship\sthe\ssource\scode/make freely available/g;
#     (That was poorly worded on my part)
}

2.  Earlier, Mr. Tobey wrote:
>Huh?  That's one of the _best_ ways to make money with OSS.
>Give away the software, charge for the content.

Can you give me some examples of profitable companies
that do this with a product-oriented (not service-oriented) model?

3.  I shouldn't have used the phrase "properitary data format", that
was handing over a loaded gun.  hmm ... perhaps I should have
said "A non-SQL database that meets our needs?"