[Gllug] Gates, self proclaimed father of open-source

[William Palfreman]

On Fri, 9 Nov 2001, ae wrote:

> From SeattleTimes: "Gates said there's a role for free software alongside
> commercial software, but the open-source movement taken to its extreme 

Note the straw man.  Open source software <i>taken to its extreme</i>.  
Not open sourse software per se, but his definition of what open source
software would be at what he perceives to be an extreme - probably
something like the GPL being a legal requirement for all currently
copyrightable material.

> would mean no software jobs or taxes paid by software companies,

Sure, if anything but GPL was illegal.  Even then, there wouldn't be no
software jobs, just many fewer.  Purely hypothetical rambling.  
Interesting how he pulls politicians' tweak-strings by asserting that open
source reduces the amount of tax they get to cream off. Far be it from me
to suggest that someone who hasn't so much as written a "Hello World"
doesn't have a right to a 40% cut in, Open Source or not.

> and it would mean companies such as Microsoft would not risk investing
> in advanced products.

Microsoft *are* taking risks at the moment.  All the reactions I've seen
so far to WXP have been along the line of "well that doesn't do anything
for me".  Being slower than W2000 and with licencing from hell are
definitely "risky" in a commercial sense.

> Gates also took some credit for the genesis of open-source software. He said
> Microsoft made it possible by standardizing computers: "Really, the reason
> you see open source there at all is because we came in and said there should
> be a platform that's identical with millions and millions of machines," he
> said."

Indeed.  www.netbsd.org.
 
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134363780_microsoft
> 08.html


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W. Palfreman. 		http://www.palfreman.com/william/
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