FreeNAS is awesome and extensible. Out of the box it's quite functional and it's open source.
It's the backbone of my work/home network. All the Linux boxes have it mounted in the home directory, so all the machines with Rhythmbox think it's local. All the windows machines can access it easily.
There are a dozen services you can enable as your needs dictate. Setup is straightforward through a web interface. Extra bonus it runs headless on crap hardware, in my case a 433mghz Emachine.
Well, on the other side of it. It only takes one bad customer having a bad day to shit all over your business. Some people are crazy and vindictive. Like the guy who reported me to the Consumer Product Safety Commission on fictitious grounds because I refused to be extorted.
Presumably, he's annoyed that he distributed a piece of software under the terms of the GPL, and others extended it and sold those extensions under proprietary terms. If this was ffmpeg, we wouldn't even have to wonder about it.
To expand on your comment - Matt Mullenweg is often quick to point out that WordPress itself came into being by forking a GPL'd abandonware project. It's because of this that I think he genuinely wants to ensure users of the software have the same opportunities he has had.
Also, regarding the marketplace surrounding WordPress, WooThemes distribute their themes under the GPL and per Andrew Warner's interview with co-founder Adii Pienaar (http://mixergy.com/woothemes-adriaan-pienaar/) they make $2+ million a year and have had some of their code incorporated back into WordPress by Automattic. This should assuage any fears about GPL themes being commercially viable and of Automattic taking a dislike to others making money off of WordPress.
As a big fan of the GPL I don't mean to come across as totally flippant. However, I just don't see a problem with people selling themes.
In a hurry, not enough skills, buy a theme. Skilled with the time to make your own, then roll your own.
You have a choice, you are not compelled to pay for a theme if you don't want to. The software will continue to work regardless.
Unless there is some kind of legal stalking horse that could affect the GPL, I don't see the point of all the fuss.
I use both Wordpress and Joomla and I see the same kind of thriving ecosystem around both projects. Commercial and non-commercial plugins and themes for both. Seems like a good thing to me and I don't see why it has to be an either/or situation.
If I am missing something then I would like to hear it.
There is no problem with selling themes. What may be a problem is distributing a theme under another license.
I think it's unlikely they'll do anything about this as legal action would be detrimental to their community; meaning that this won't be decided unless someone who receives a non-GPL'd theme contests it. This doesn't preclude Automattic/Matt from stating their view and raising a bit of a fuss as you put it in the interim.
To be clear - I'm neither a fan of the GPL, a lawyer or a WordPress user so I don't know whether Automattic is in the right and I'm indifferent as to whether or not they are.
It has been said that what the current patents issue creates is a landscape where you can only be the one winner or among the many losers.
If there was a different solution, then there could be many small players filling different niches. This would be a win since there would be many opportunities to create a business and contribute to the economy.
Look at ISPs, if all you have is Comcast then you have a parallel to the current patents winner take all situation with all the problems that creates.
I really think the larger issue is that if people can't create businesses that fill out the economic landscape then those people are not able to work to their potential and that is a huge unintended drag on growth.
I was enthusiastically commenting on a healthy niche market and then I used a metaphor point out that it's not just a hobby or a toy that these people are working on. It's a sophisticated tool that interfaces with the outside world much like CNC, which happens to be my area of interest.
It's an analogy. A tool to further understanding. On many levels software is just like many other businesses, Just like many other businesses are like software on some levels.
I just put Evince on all my Windows machines and I am very happy about it. I was able to remove all the Adobe Air bonus arterial sclerosis.
I tried Foxit and was not very impressed. I thought it was interesting that the Evince windows port was made since the last time I looked for an Acrobat replacement about a year ago.
Right with you on the custom furniture thing. Most skilled crafts-people are booked for months ahead.
The ones that I know don't want to scale because then they would not be making furniture, they would be running a business.
Interestingly, a furniture 'startup' is frequently a vehicle for one person to make a living doing what they love. Often after years of working as a professional in another field making money for the family, building a nest egg, tooling up, honing their skills and trying to develop a reputation and market.
It's the backbone of my work/home network. All the Linux boxes have it mounted in the home directory, so all the machines with Rhythmbox think it's local. All the windows machines can access it easily.
There are a dozen services you can enable as your needs dictate. Setup is straightforward through a web interface. Extra bonus it runs headless on crap hardware, in my case a 433mghz Emachine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeNAS