Free Software vs. proprietary Software. Was: Re: [Freegis-list] SDSS

[Jan-Oliver Wagner]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 10:34:47AM +0000, Ian Turton wrote:
> I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for but have a look at 
> http://www.ccg.leeds.ac.uk/democracy/ to see if it's the right sort of 
> thing. We have an MCE based system and a public planning system.

on these pages proprietary is described with the term 'commercial'.

I am taking this occasion to again encourage all developers
and users of Free Software to not
use the term 'commercial' as the opposite of Free Software.

The opposite of Free Software is proprietary software.
Both can either be commercial or not.

Being precise with this will make clear that companies do
a professional job when offering services based on Free Software
and they deserve full payment.
Successful companies that issue Free Software (preferable Free
Software exclusively) will massively support Free Software to cope
with the strong lobbying of the proprietary monopolists.
Once the chances are equal with a fair market for both,
Free Software and proprietary software, the best may win.

	Jan

-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

Intevation GmbH	              	     http://intevation.de/
FreeGIS	                               http://freegis.org/