[Sussex] Distros

[Chris Jones]

Hi

On Mon, 4 April, 2005 10:45, Steve Dobson said:
> As the proof I give you the Linux kernel.  It now includes JFS, ReiserFS

I'm not really sure that one kernel is an especially good proof of the GPL
being the answer for business.

> propriety.  Would IBM, Hans Reiser and SGI have been willing to donate
> code to Linux if Linux was released under the BSD license?  I would
> suggest they would not.

Perhaps not, but it's very hard to predict such things and it's also hard
to say that someone else wouldn't have come along and written just as good
a filesystem and not had a trendy name. It's not like the BSDs are
languishing with really awful filesystems.

kernels and operating systems aren't all that interesting anyway, the case
for open source and free software has been made there pretty well now.
What's far more important is applications. If the Free/Open systems don't
build up a good stack of applications then we are going to be swamped by
ISVs writing closed, commercial software as the systems get more popular.
To some extent this is already happening, but it will only get worse. That
to me is far more important than another bloody filesystem going into the
kernel ;)

> change the name and sell it as a commercial product.  Under such a license
> why should any company give away their own technologies?

It would depend on the situation, but it does happen. If you were talking
to a Microsoft sales rep they'd probably be asking you why on earth a
company should surrender their IP to the GPL license ;)

> For companies like IBM the GPL is an attractive license.

I think you'll find that the vast majority of software IBM publishes to
run on free/open systems is not GPL licensed, indeed a very serious amount
of it is entirely closed and commercial. This would be because their main
push is in porting their middleware.

> shared.  I can share IBM's technology with my clients, and if I need to

No you can't, you can take a few things they've submitted to the kernel
and share them. I'd be surprised if you even get source for WebSphere and
you certainly won't be able to share it.

> The GPL forces everyone to play fair, OpenSource License do not.  We only

That's lumping a lot of licenses together into one pretty bold statement,
I am not familiar enough with the bulk of them to comment.

> Thanks, in no small way to the GPL, IBM has managed to destroy most of
> SCO's case against them.

SCO destroyed their own case by bringing a really stupid case ;)

> I disagree.  By allowing SWpats or any other form software IP allows IT

I do find software patents quite worrying, but even if they are
introduced, they will be so ultimately self-defeating that they will have
to be repealed. Five years after their introduction the entire software
intdustry will be paralysed by huge amounts of due dilligence and
cross-licensing ;)

> players to build vendor lockin.  RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, ... all
> have patches that they apply to the Linux kernel.  Their clients
> are depenant on those patches.  If

Why does software patents existing mean RedHat customers are more or less
locked in? It would only mean anything if RedHat started patenting things
and since they release pretty much all of their software under the GPL
they would have some problems patenting it ;)

> The "moral purity" of the GPL forces share and share-a-like.  A Linux user

That does not make it the tool for all situations though. The GPL does
happen to be my preferred license of choice for my own work, but I also
use these things in a business context and there I am compelled by the
result, not the means, so I would go for a less pure license if it worked
better, just as I'd license WebSphere if it was applicable to the task in
hand. As much as I'd like to grow a long beard and refuse to do that from
my high horse, I live in the real world where that isn't possible. That is
what I was getting at originally.
I still value the FSF as something of a lighthouse in the sea of morality
though ;)

Cheers,
-- 
Chris Jones
  cmsj at tenshu.net
   www.tenshu.net