Selling a Newly Created Linux

Think you can never sell the OS since its all open source. You can only see the packaging and support time.
 
you can't sell the distro. you can sell support.

the work (applications/ code) is not yours to sell. that's the simple answer.
 
There are a few people that tried this and it never really worked, well almost.

Linspire failed in the desktop arena since there are just too many good alternatives, but where it does work and succeed is in the embedded arena!

But sadly if you build a router, divx media centre or whatnot then you hire some programmers to write the OS for you and a couple of lawyers to make sure you are well within the GPL.

I cannot see how this will work for the desktop marker, corporate, maybe, servers, never, embedded, if you have some killer device, then yes.
 
As far as selling software goes, if you build on a GNU-licensed piece of open source software, you cannot sell it without providing the source code.

Your best option would be SaaS.
 
The GPL is quite clear on that. You can't customize a package, and then sell it off as a commercial package.

You can sell installation and support though.

You can rewrite the kernel though, but be careful when doing so that you don't plagiarize the work of others. (But why reinvent the wheel? Easier to sell support than rewriting something from scratch AND having to support that as well...)
 
If you rewrite the kernel and Stallman finds one single line of code that is similar to the original kernel, then you are in trouble since this deranged old man is like a bloodhound with regards to violations in the GPL.

What are you planning on doing, who is going to be your target market and what is the idea behind it all?
 
Either way, you still won't be able to. Unless you plan to write up a kernel from scratch, which will be more of a mission than what it's worth.
 
Mokusei said:
If something is not commercially available, people tend not to trust it
Click to expand...


if you really wanted to prove that Linux is commercially viable (which I assume is what your statement meant) you could point them in the way of Red Hat for one.
 
Wouldn't it be a better idea to first pick one of the million distro's out there that you maybe like and learn from them by offering your support time?

I suggest you have a look into Gentoo, and they do welcome all sorts from coders, graphic artists and even editors for help files etc. And read up on the GPL, LGPL, BSD and whatever-else licences.

Google has released chrome OS source code to the general public, that's a condition of using linux.
 
Drake2007 said:
Wouldn't it be a better idea to first pick one of the million distro's out there that you maybe like and learn from them by offering your support time?

I suggest you have a look into Gentoo, and they do welcome all sorts from coders, graphic artists and even editors for help files etc. And read up on the GPL, LGPL, BSD and whatever-else licences.

Google has released chrome OS source code to the general public, that's a condition of using linux.
Click to expand...

+1
 
If you write your own kernel, what about hardware support? How will you get vendors to provide drivers for your kernel? You will also need to be very careful about third party apps regarding licensing. You will need software for your kernel at the end of the day.
Not trying to discourage you, but you need to look at the bigger picture.
 
Ummm.

At the last count I saw (version 2.6.31), the linux kernel source code was over 12 million lines. Good luck!
 
Both Windows and Linux have been in development for decades. On your own, you'll be old before releasing a viable product.

Nothing to stop you trying though - if you have the motivation and energy, may as well have fun!
 
mister said:
Ummm.

At the last count I saw (version 2.6.31), the linux kernel source code was over 12 million lines. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Not impossible, that's 23 lines of working code every minute 24/7 for one year. :P
 
Easiest way around the GPL issue is to make an "appliance" and sell it. It could be a email, file server, security, firewall, small business server (all in one) appliance or whatever. You sell the hardware, installation and support but not the OS. Problem solved. Plenty of companies do this and put their own web interface on it so it looks unique, but underneath it's all free goodies. :D
 
Go for it Mokusei. Pursue it with all you got. Even if you struggle and give up, you can say that you gave it a try.

I would trawl some local users groups and see if you can get some more people on board.
 
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