Hero, founder of Linux: Can Linux get money?

Hero, founder of Linux: Can Linux get money? -- Linux general technology-Linux technology and application information. For details, refer to the following section. At that time, there was a prank prevalent on the Internet.

It is said that there was a poor boy named Craig who had cancer and was struggling to die online, while a chain of emails circulated among netizens asking people to mail postcards to the boy to express support for him. In fact, this is a prank of someone. Maybe there is no such person as Craig, let alone cancer. However, this appeal attracted millions of postcards. So I am a joke and want a Linux User to send me postcards instead of money. It seems like a person will sigh, "Oh, God, it's another guy who wants postcards !" Joke. At that time, in the personal computer world, there was a strong tradition of software sharing. After downloading a program, you should send the author a return of about 10 yuan. So I received a lot of emails asking me if I want people to send me thirty yuan. In this case, I think something must be said.

In retrospect, I think the money will be very useful. I have owed about $ five thousand in student payment and paid about $50 a month for my computer. My other major consumption is pizza and beer. However, due to Linux development, I didn't have time to go out at that time, and I went out once a week at most. I don't spend any money on girls. I spent all my money on adding hardware to my computer. Maybe if I change someone, I will ask you for money, even if it is to relieve the burden on his single mother who worked hard day and night? Alas, I did not think of this at that time. Sue me.

At that time, I wanted to know where anyone was using Linux. I prefer to receive postcards than receive money. In fact, postcards are rolling in, from New Zealand, from Japan, from Holland, and the United States. Sarah occasionally tried to get a token, and suddenly realized that his quarreling brother had friends from such a distant place. It was the first time that she realized that I could be doing something useful when I used telephone lines. There are thousands of postcards in total, but they are no longer in sight. They must have been lost when I moved. "I am the least nostalgic person he has ever seen," said Irvin, a friend of mine.

In fact, there are many reasons why I don't need money. When I first launched Linux, I felt that I was moving forward along the footprints of scientists and other academics for centuries, their achievements are often based on what others have done-in Newton's words, I am standing on the shoulders of giants. In doing so, I am not only separating my achievements from others, but others will also feel that my work is useful. I also want to hear the response (of course, I want to hear praise ). There is no requirement for feedback that may help me improve my work. I think, if I am not in Finland, my attitude will be different. In Finland, only a person showed a slight sign of greed, people will regard it as suspicious and not jealous (this has changed since Nokia's phone company began to make money all over the world and enriched the wallet of many Finnish people ). And, by the way, if I did not grow up under the influence of my stubborn grandfather and communist father, I will certainly have a different attitude towards this money-less incident.

In any case, I don't want to sell Linux, and I don't want to lose control of it. That is to say, I don't want anyone to buy it. When I uploaded each version as early as September, I indicated this copyright statement in the copied file. According to the Bonn Convention of the 19th century, unless you sell it, you own the copyright of everything you have created. As the copyright holder, I began to set the following Linux rules:

1. People can use this operating system for free. 2. But not 3. They must use it as a product. 4. The changes and improvements made to it. 5. It must be made public in the form of source code (6, not 7, binary, 8, not 9, and public .) 10. If no 11, 12, or above is specified, 13, there is no right to reproduce it. 14. Create or engage in any action.

Imagine it yourself. You have spent six months on this program. You want it to be useful and you can gain something from it, but you certainly don't want it to be taken away for good. I want everyone to see and use it, and modify and improve it at will. However, I also want to make sure that I know what changes they have made in a timely manner. I hope I have the right to use the source program. In this way, I can also use it if someone else makes any improvement. In my opinion, to make Linux the most perfect technology, we must maintain its purity. If copper stinks penetrate in, things will become dark. Therefore, if the problem of money is not involved, there will be no greedy participation.

Although I am not interested in making money using Linux, others do not think that they will ask for a return when giving others a copy that has been downloaded to a floppy disk. In May February, almost everyone who attended a UNIX User Conference had a floppy disk installed with a Linux system. These people also asked me if they could sell Linux as a product. For example, they only need five dollars to reclaim the cost of floppy disks and time. It sounds reasonable, but the problem is that this will infringe my copyright.

Obviously, it is time for me to reflect on the "Linux is not a sold product.

At that time, Linux had aroused a lot of discussion on the Internet, which made me confident that no one could steal the fruits of my work-and this was my biggest concern. At least, if someone did, he would not be able to escape everyone's condemnation. If someone wants to seize Linux and turn it into a commercial project, the hacker's opposition will surely be on the internet, and numerous hacker-like figures will reprimand: "Hey, that's Linux. Stop it." Of course, the wording is not so elegant.

The development of things is unstoppable: hackers around the world share their suggestions for making changes every day.

We are collectively creating the best operating system, and this development track cannot be changed. That's why I think it is acceptable to use Linux as a commodity because it is widely known.

However, before making myself look like a charity, another key factor made me make this decision. In fact, to make Linux useful, I used to rely on a lot of free download tools online-I put myself on the shoulders of giants. The most important of these free software is the GCC compiler, Which is Richard? The masterpiece of sdoman, and has registered the copyright on the Public License Association (GPL. Under the GPL clause, money is not a problem. As long as someone is willing to buy it, you can sell for $1 million. However, you must provide the software source. Those who get or buy your source will have the same amount of information about the program as you do. This is really a brilliant move. I agree with the GPL principle, but unlike those who believe that all software innovations should be made public to the world under GPL, I think the inventor himself has the right to decide how to deal with his invention.

As a result, I abandoned my old copyright statement and adopted the GPL content. A file signed by sdoman with his lawyers (because of the participation of lawyers, this file has several pages ).

The new copyright statement is included in version 0.12. However, I remember that on the night of the release, I woke up from my sleep and thought that commercial interests would be a bit odd, because there were not many commercial interests involved at that time. But somehow, I think I should be careful. One of my concerns is that, still, some people will not respect my copyright to hijack Linux. I am worried that in reality, if an American infringes my copyright, I cannot file a lawsuit against it. This is still my concern. It is very easy to sue someone for infringement, and my fear is that some people will continue to engage in such violations even if they are sued, unless they add some enforced legal action. At the same time, I am constantly worried that in places like China, enterprises do not acknowledge the effectiveness of GPL, and thus will not respect my copyright.

In fact, the legal systems in these regions did not effectively stop copyright infringement at that time (China has signed a series of international conventions, and Lee nass is talking about the situation in 1991 ), in addition, it is considered cost-effective to prevent illegal activities from being invested in these areas. Large software companies and record companies have made great efforts, but the results are not very effective.

However, the facts have mitigated my worries. Some people do infringe my copyright for the moment, but they are often those who respect the copyright, give feedback on improvements, and improve the system functions. They will be part of the system upgrade process. On the contrary, those who do not respect copyright will not take advantage of these upgrades, and their customers will leave them-I hope.
In general, I see copyright in two ways. For example, if a person earns $50 a month, will he spend $ two hundred and fifty on a software project? I don't think he is immoral if I spend a little money to buy illegal copies of software and use the five-month salary for full stomach. Such infringement is morally acceptable. It is immoral to hunt down such "infringers", let alone stupid. In Linux, who cares if a person actually follows GPL when only using it for personal purposes? Those who want to make a lot of money are really immoral, whether they are in the United States or Africa, or to some extent.

Greed has never been good.