Clarification on my call for license change

[Gerhard W. Gruber]

Roland wrote:

> I just don't understand one thing:
> How does your company expect to make money once WINE is xGPLed? If all your
> code has to be contributed back, why should I buy it from your company?

The same way many companies work also with their properiteary code. You
know your code needs a feature but you don't have the time for
implementation because you have no customer who says he really needs it.
Of course many customers may be gald to have it, but none is willing to
pay for it. The someday a customer turns up who says he needs that stuff
badly and he wants to know how much you charge for it. Then you
implement that feature, you might have implemented anyway some day, and
once it is available you can give it to all your customers, or you can
charge a price that others are willing to pay even though they wouldn't
have paid the develeopment price. I worked for a company that worked
exactly that same way and this works also for GPL code as well.