[wplug] Whither Open Source?

[Rob Knapp]

On Fri, 2005-05-13 at 10:15 -0400, Teodorski, Christopher wrote:

> I think an acquisition of Redhat by Microsoft would ultimately doom
> Redhat, 

Either that or it would fundementally change Microsoft....

> I don't think it would be the end of Open Source or of Free
> Software.  I also believe that it would send a shockwave through the
> community -- but in the end we/they would brush off and move on.   

I agree.  It would be a major disruption.... just think of all the "I
told you so in '97" posts on /.   However, I think we'd recover fairly
quickly.

> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wplug-bounces+christopher.teodorski=ddiworld.com at wplug.org
> [mailto:wplug-bounces+christopher.teodorski=ddiworld.com at wplug.org] On
> Behalf Of Rob Knapp
> Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 9:52 AM
> To: wplug at wplug.org
> Subject: Re: [wplug] Whither Open Source?
> 
> On Fri, 2005-05-13 at 09:35 -0400, Greg Simkins wrote:
> > As the author said, it is not clear where it is going, but he did lay 
> > out a couple dots about IBM retaliating by purchasing Novelle.  I 
> > suppose that would take a lot of wind out of the Open Source sails.  
> > We would be left with the die hards like RMS.
> 
> I still fail to see how "that would take a lot of wind out of the Open
> Source sails.  We would be left with the die hards like RMS."  Red Hat
> and Novell are just companies that market open source software, they are
> not the open source movement.  That is the advantage of Free and Open
> Source software, there is no single company (or group of companies) that
> could be acquired.
> 
> What part of your concern am I missing?
> 
> > I am sure there are good lawyers, but if this whole chain of events is
> 
> > caused by some legal concern about old patents, I think grave 
> > misjustice will be done.  So, on the whole, we have too many lawyers.
> 
> 
> Keep in mind this deal is 100% speculation based on someone observing
> two execs having dinner again.  There was no hard-facts based on what
> they were discussing.
> 
> And why MS would be talking to an exec of a single open source company
> about a potential violation,( rather that the heads of the project
> themselves, along with all the other major open source companies) is
> completely beyond me.
> 
> While software patents are not good, I think their threat is to open
> source software is highly, highly overrated. There are a lot of
> companies, government and educational institutions that are dependent on
> open source software. I think if there was a serious threat, you would
> see a large number of companies and universities stepping forward to
> threaten MS with their patents.  IBM, for example, has a huge portfolio
> of patents that it has used as a bludgeon in the past.  It has also put
> a lot of time and money into Linux/Open Source...they aren't going to
> let that investment die because of a single acquisition. There's also a
> number of wealthy individuals looking for a test case for software
> patents that could.
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
---
Rob "Myddrin" Knapp
myddrin at myddrin.com
http://www.myddrin.com