Michael Tremer wrote:
Sure it is free software in the end and we all wouldn't do free software if we didn't know this from the beginning. We do not expect money from every single user, because other things are even more important. But at the end of the day money is needed to run the project. If someone is paying that from their own pocket and an other one is making the huge profit, something is *clearly* wrong.
Thank you for the in depth answer...
I hope there's someone out there who will leak the name of the large company so there's a change in their behavior and a loss of at least a little of their customer base.
Unfortunately, there's big money in computer security these days and some large companies have been buying up the Open Source products. I remember when Cisco replaced their sensor box under Solaris (IIRC it was Solaris, not SCO) with a Linux customized box with Snort...
Perhaps the Open Source community needs to pool resources in some kind of cooperative to keep these projects going.
At least Snort is still available after the Cisco buyout. It could have been worse and been an Oracle purchase which usually causes a pull of the open source version from the net.
Bill