what effects does the advent of open ended,licence free software like linux have on the I.T industry?
486188
First, Linux is not "licence free" as you state [1]. Second, this type of software has been around for over a decade, and so far hasn't had the sweeping changes everyone thought.  Firefox is one noteworthy exception of widespread adoption of open-source software.  People hoped open-source software will drive prices down, but this doesn't seem to be happening so far.  There is still a struggle, but widespread Linux use still seems like an elusive goal.  You can find a lot of the debate if you go to a linux forum, which you can find on google.
2496
Depends on the company.\n\nThe AVG and AntiVir free anti-virus software is given away free to individuals to advertise the business versions of those products.\n\nA lot of open source software (gcc, xemacs, etc.) is given away free and the programmers charge for a manual teling you all the cool tricks under the surface. Red Hat, SUSE and IBM all support Linux, so can invest in the software on the back of massive support contracts with people running Linux.\n\nSoftware such as Firefox is supported by selling merchandise and by getting a cut from Google for having the Google bar installed by default and Google as the default home page.\n\nOpera's free edition used to be supported by adverts in the browser, for which they were payed. Many small companies go down this route.\n\nThere are also some dodgy pieces of software which you can download for free that install rubbish onto your computer, that either dials premium rate numbers using your modem, or steals your information to sell to criminals. These tend to be either games or pornography based downlaods, but can be anything. So long as you know where you're downloading from, you can avoid these.
560347
the government doesn not subsidise software, you pay for th roadwork with taxes, you can get a lot of free software though, from places like opensource.com, and free operating systems from linux
780274
nope... the joy of open source... why not ask again and see if you get a different answer.
533047
Any one you choose will work with Linux.  It's all standards-based.
487849
Linux for programming and to analyse security,\nWindows for general surfing.
38800
Hi\nas for as i think it is  much influence of internet in software development specially Application Development area, lot's of application available on internet of every category at free of cost ,trial version , demo. In trail version case u can use a particular software with in 30 or some day limit, and after u can download another one.\n\nAnd we can see that now-a-days we r going far away from core proramming, and writing own programming logic, just beacuse internet. I mean alot of peoples , even those who working in MNC use freely internet to copy the code specially in (Javascript, and some other language)\n\nSo now computer person starts cosider internet as active helper.
613478
One of the principles of open-source software is release early and release often.  This enables open-source software to become available before commercial offerings and updated regularly to fix bugs and offer new features.
1082803
Its free But I don't see y u would want linux but it is free
373081
Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License , the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone. Click on the link below to find out more about the operating system that is causing a revolution in the world of computers.\nhttp://www.linux.org/lininfo/index.html
979236
All this software is designed and copyright protected! If its a requirement of the business purchase the package required. Put out a tender!!! Nothing is for free!!\nTalk to you IT Dept
59330
There are lots of sources of illegal software on the web, and I won't point any of them out to you.  But be aware that all of them will most definitely be illegal.\n\nNow for the legal part.\n\nIf you are a student in a computer related field at a participating university, Microsoft has a program through which affiliated clubs can recieve free copies of many pieces of software.  Often, these are timed trial or beta copies, but occasionally these are full licensed copies.  They cannot be sold or redistributed in any way, but they are a great way for student software developers to get a foothold on some of the newest technology in an affordable way.  In turn, of course, Microsoft hopes that you will learn to develop for thier platforms and go on to do such development as you move into the professional world.
699977
In terms of market share, unfortunately, Microsoft Windows.\nPopular in terms of enthusiastic happy users, Apple's Mac OS's.\nBut popular in the business world, Unix and it's derivatives, not easy to learn or use for us non-uber-geeky-people.
141582
Anything that is not copyrighted. Open source software.
230293
Because inexpensive talent in software engineers is being found all over the world including India and Russia and also developing third world nations we're likely to see an emergence of Software Companies growing to compete with the handful of dominant American companies.  We're also likely to see changes in the standards around development because right now it's still difficult to contract out development of software to these developing countries and still receive a product that is worthwhile to go to market with that doesn't create more problems than it solves.  I think it will get better though.
1030545
Open source software weather desktop version or web version, are growing rapidly. It is said to be future by many experts. We have already seen democratic mood of major websites like yahoo.com, google.com, etc. \n\nMSN is a good example. Though more professional in services and wider product ranges available at MSN  site, yahoo and google rank ahead of MSN. This is the power of free services. We hope we will get benefits of sofwares in future.\n\nThere are drawbacks too. Open source systems are hugely error prone and subject to violence if not governed properly. Hackers and crackers community will rule if they will get any system software easily, or think how will they controll Internet if community will be made of totally free version software. \n\nI prefer 50% free, open source software and web edition, while 50% for professional , proprietary softwares. This will be more balanced.
557470
Yes, you can pirate open source software. Even open source software has licensing requirements, and if you violate the terms of the license, you have pirated it.\n\nFor example, the GNU Lesser General Public License, which is the license OpenOffice uses, does not allow you to take code without credit, or modify code without crediting the original code's author, or to make changes to code without noting your changes, and you cannot replace the effects of functions in the root classes.\n\nIf you did any of that, you would be pirating the software.\n\nDepending on the Linux distro, different licensing schemes apply, as well.\n\nThat said, no, proprietary software isn't the opposite of legal software. All software is effectively built upon something else's license; if not the OS, then a compiler or an IDE or some other such product. All of those are licensed, unless you built, from scratch, your own OS, programs, etc.