Re: RMS's note to am-info regarding software development models...

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

>  Well, PostgreSQL (see http://www.postgresql.org) is an open source
>database server that was developed at the University of Calafornia.  It
>doesn't have all of the features of Oracle, but for some purposes it could
>be a competative product.  Is it wrong for the University to produce such an
>application?  I say it is not.

That depends on why they wrote it.  If they did it just to try to put
commercial database vendors out of business to satisfy a vendetta against
commercial vendors and because they refuse to submit to the supposed
tyranny of a commercial product which would otherwise have suited their
needs just fine, then I think it is a waste of public funds.

If they developed it because they had a special internal need not met by
other software, then decided to make it free when they were finished
(perhaps because they thought it would be useful to others, but had no
interest in supporting it or developing it further), then I have no problem
with funding it with public money because it was likely they best way for
them to get the software that they needed.

Other scenarios are possible, of course.

By the way, where is the University of Calafornia?  ;-)



--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/)
Cornell University, Field of Biochemistry
377 Olin Chemistry Lab

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