[Mephisto]

Mmm, maybe I'm not that clear in what I want to say. There are two things I talk about here - Linux and OSS under the GPL/GNU.

What you have to do if you take a GPL/GNU OSS as a base from where you start programming I said in several Posts already. You have to make it OSS as well.

If you use Linux and sell it to customers you have to give them a warranty that the software has a) no issues and b) is free from third party rights on it.
If you find errors or you violate third party rights you have to fix the problem/indemnify your customers. Therefore you have to either invest money or have some programmers to fix problems. In the end you become your own OS seller (like Microsoft).
If you hire Microsoft or Sun directly and there are errors in their software they will fix it for you and your customer. And yes, they really do this because you can easily sue them and win.

You can program software for Linux all day long and keep it closed source. No problem at all. But from a business point of view it is often just more profitable to hire an OS seller and get rid of all you warranty problems or to become a OS seller yourself.

[ May 26, 2004, 05:18: Message edited by: Mephisto ]