Re: OT: Is Linux "A Cancer" ? well M$ thinks so ...

Jared Still wrote:
>
> Same old FUD. Try to associate your competition with
> a scary word and make them a pariah.
>
> McCarthyism in the 50's, Balmerism in the 00's.
>
> Jared
>
> On Friday 01 June 2001 14:17, Jamadagni, Rajendra wrote:
> > Read the story here
> > (<url>http://www.suntimes.com/output/tech/cst-fin-micro01.html</url>) and
> > have a good laugh.
> >
> > LOL! TGIF
> > Raj

This is not an email that I would normally post to the list - but since its the weekend - why not?

Jared,

The GPL has been referred to as a "virus" previously, due to inclusion of GPL code causing the entire piece of code (at the execution unit) to be required to be released under the same license.

I have a problem with this section of the article:

<snip>
Q: Do you view Linux and the open-source movement as a threat to Microsoft?

1. Yeah. It's good competition. It will force us to be innovative. It will force us to justify the prices and value that we deliver. And that's only healthy. The only thing we have a problem with is when the government funds open-source work. Government funding should be for work that is available to everybody. Open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source. If the government wants to put something in the public domain, it should. Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works. <snip>

"Open Source" != "GPL".
The GPL is one license - there are many like it, many unlike it. http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses

Here is an article by Stallman
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9911/08/freedom.GNU.idg/

Linus Torvalds chose the GPL so that no one could "own" Linux. There are other licenses that can be used for Free Software or Open Source Software, such as the LGPL, Apache and BSD Artistic License. I've heard rumors that much of the TCP/IP stack in Windows 2000 has its origins in FreeBSD code - licensed under the BSD license.

To Balmer - if Microsoft cannot "own" it - it is evil - and should not be funded.
As not all Open Source work is licensed under the GPL, his statement is overly broad and therefore false.

Paul

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