Re: BDI install disk for EMC -evidence that a braindead install already exists

In the past few days, I have utilized Tim Goldstein's script and my redhat
cd to install linux, rtlinux, and emc. The process is simple(really!) and
painless with the right hardware. There also happens to be an amazing safety
net of people willing to assist in guiding one through the pitfalls of the
installation process. The cost -nothing. The risk of not recouping your
investment -none.

Frankly, I wonder, if you calculated the amount of time it would take you to
develop your own linux-based control software, multiplied that by your
hourly fee, how much would that come to? $5000., $10,000.,That's your
payment, Brian. That you just saved all that time and money because the nist
has done that work for you. Now, I think if you want to take the work thats
been done, and add to it a bit, improve it and SHARE it, just as its been
shared with you, then you would seem to get the point of open source. Thats
what Tim Goldstein and Ray Henry have done. Until now, no one (that I'm
aware of) has asked for money to improve EMC, much less talked about
removing it from the public domain. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you
basically want to develop a proprietary installation proccess for an open
source product, then sell it? Using folks on this list to finance your
endeavour, with the idea that if, in the future, your able to sell more you
will refund money to your "investors". I bet you "particuarily like the
idea".

>I particularly like the idea of offering BDI at $134 to 15
> people now, and if more buyers show up their purchase price
> will be refunded to the earlier buyers. This can be
> implemented at reasonable transaction costs on e-gold.com.

You want your "customers" to assume YOUR risk. What a great deal.....for
you. Sounds a bit like a ponzi scheme to me. :(

Well, I'd like to point out what might be one more risk you hadn't
considered, that emc will keep improving and will eventually have a
completely braindead install proccess, then your proprietary "bdi" won't be
needed by anyone. No one will buy it, no one who did buy it will get any
refund.

Hmmmm......
Patrick





-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Bartholomew <bb@...>
To: cad_cam_edm_dro@onelist.com <cad_cam_edm_dro@onelist.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] BDI install disk for EMC

>From: Brian Bartholomew <bb@...>
>
>So far I count 15 people who have expressed interest in purchasing a
>"Brain-Dead Install" EMC cd based upon some version of Red Hat, were
>it offered. I agree that a version for Red Hat 6.1 would be a lot
>more interesting than for 5.2, if the kernel work were feasible.
>
>The BDI would integrate EMC and the real-time kernel into an otherwise
>unmodified version of Red Hat. The existing Red Hat install procedure
>would be kept to adapt the installation to hardware, especially video.
>A BDI that required no installation choices would have to be run on a
>PC assembled from a short and specific list of hardware. That would
>make it incompatible with your existing PC. Correct me if I'm wrong,
>but I don't think that's the tradeoff people want.
>
>I proposed 100 buyers paying $20 for software that was in the public
>domain. Here are some thoughts about terms that I hope will spark a
>discussion:
>
> However you slice it, I'm looking to make as a minimum my
> usual software consulting/development billable rate of
> $125/hour. This will go up proportionally to the risk I
> accept. If there's only a 1 in 5 chance I can sell enough
> product to cover my time, the rate I try to achieve must be
> multiplied by 5 just to keep parity.
>
> Are the 15 people willing to pay $134 instead of $20?
>
> If the likely number of purchasers can be grown from 15 to
> 1,500, the selling price can drop, although less than you
> might think because processing 1,500 orders isn't cheap.
>
> I suggested the product be licensed public domain (PD),
> because that would be most useful for purchasers. If I get
> all the money up front, that's fine. If I'm expected to sell
> 85 more copies over time, then shipping software PD won't
> allow me to do that.
>
> If the software isn't PD, then NIST probably can't reintegrate
> the improvements into their version. This fork would be bad
> for everyone. If they could, then we're back to the "I can't
> sell PD" problem.
>
> PD causes an economic "free rider" problem, too. Do you want
> others to get software for free that you just paid $134 to
> fund the development of? What if there's six months of
> development into a version and the price is a lot higher?
>
> Maybe you want other people to get the software eventually, to
> expand the EMC market, but not immediately. A temporary fork
> from NIST and PD allowing one generation of redistribution can
> be arranged, but we would need to work these terms out.
>
> I particularly like the idea of offering BDI at $134 to 15
> people now, and if more buyers show up their purchase price
> will be refunded to the earlier buyers. This can be
> implemented at reasonable transaction costs on e-gold.com.
>
> It may be that nobody is interested in paying commercial rates
> for EMC work, or at least not when the market is so small. If
> so, that's fine, just let me know.
>
>
>A member of the League for Programming Freedom (LPF) http://lpf.ai.mit.edu
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

>Brian Bartholomew - bb@... - www.wv.com - Working Version, Cambridge, MA
>
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