GPL getting tougher on patent deals

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Cut off your nose to spite your face?

I think you have to ask yourself if you want OSS software to succeed or if you want to use it to punish "for profit" companies. I get the feeling that Stallman won't feel GPL is done until no "for profit" business wants to use GPL software. He is certainly within his rights to create a "its my sandbox, play by my rules or find another sandbox" license but when he is all alone in his sandbox, who has he really punished? I think Linus sees the bigger picture that Linux distros absolutely need to have the freedom to work with "for profit" companies if you ever want to define success as being something more than 3% marketshare. The Microsoft-Novell deal is the best thing that could have happened for Linux since it gives it some legitimacy in the eyes of ABMers (and, like it or not, there are lots of them around).

In the end, it is the people who are actually creating the OSS software who get to decide which is more important:
- following Stallman's vision of a world where there are no "for profit" companies

or

- having users use your software

Posted by: NonZealot   Posted on: 03/28/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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