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So a startup shouldn’t try to gain market share with a free product? Is Linux dumping on Windows?
by aey 8y ago
So a startup shouldn’t try to gain market share with a free product?
Is Linux dumping on Windows?
- femto113 8y agoDumping is about selling at a marginal loss. For example if it cost you $7 to make a widget but you sell it at a loss for $5 because you’re trying to drive a competitor who can make a widget for $6 out of the market. Linux (like most software) has no marginal cost so unless you pay someone to use it dumping doesn’t really apply (Google did do that with Android). For Uber and Lyft I think a reasonable case could be made that they are dumping if they take a marginal loss on each ride to force a lower cost provider out of a market, but companies get a lot of leeway for money spent on “marketing”, eg the losses can be structured as “new driver bonuses” and “new customer discounts” rather than a cost per ride.
- aey 8y agoMicrosoft is spending X per year on engineering. So Windows has a marginal cost. Because I am overcompensated and have spare engineering time I can dump it into a free Linux product to force Windows out of a market. Redhat is actually taking my free engineering time and monetizing it! The villains!!!