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A comment on There is no free software, only software that is paid for by somebody else.. Parent comment

Re:There is no free software, only software that is paid for... by mixmax on Saturday August 01, 2009 @06:46PM (#736788)
Another alternative is that a nimble startup creates a piece of software to solve the problem and sells it to 1000 companies at $10.000 a pop. This way the companies get their software even cheaper, and another beautiful startup is born.

With a contrived example you can prove anything :-)

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Re:There is no free software, only software that is paid for... by DarkShikari on Saturday August 01, 2009 @07:30PM (#736831)
Of course, but most of the time when software is created for an internal use, the company doesn't want to be in the business of selling said product.
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Re:There is no free software, only software that is paid for... by rubinelli on Saturday August 01, 2009 @08:18PM (#736877)
Most custom-built software is too tied to internal processes to be useful outside, because a generic solution always costs more (the consensus is 3x). Most successful OS projects that have this source solve a narrow, highly technical problem.
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