Re: Free software
> Without wanting to raise the anybody's hackles, I'd like to ask this list
> what's wrong with a company that wants to contribute it's technology to
> Debian, but not destroy any competitive advantage it might have in the
> market?
>From my point of view - nothing. But current Debian's treatment of the
definition of "free" software and Debian's relationships with
"non-free" software are ...ahem.. quite immature and not self-consistent.
(That's basically the reason we have that longish discussions on
copyright issues.)
I think Debian should become much more flexible. I know that this
point of view will be considered radical but I think that it is
ridiculous situation when, for instance, motif applications, which
are (and have been for a long time) industry standard for virtually
every UNIX system (with some well-known exceptions) are only good for
"contrib"!
If we want to become one of the standard Unix distributions we would
have to admit and cope much better with the fact of existence of
commercial and "non-free" software. Let's forget the illusion that
it is possible to have 100% "free" distribution working for real
world.
Franckly, I do not expect any feedback _now_, let it just be something
to think about.
Thank you.
Alex Y.
>
> Bear in mind that, as Linux moves into the mainstream, companies are going
> to want to protect those advantages. And users benefit from that because
> it effectively means that real money is going into the development of the
> "stuff on top of the OS". Now sure, we don't want to descend back into
> the dark ages of UNIX proprietary technology. But we also want to create
> a platform upon which Linux, as an open and freely available system, can
> become a first-class end-users platform as well.
>
> I think Linux is brilliant. I would be prepared to lobby companies like
> Sun and SGI to include Debian as a STANDARD operating system on their
> CD's, along with IRIX and Solaris, because I think in the long run a
> company like SGI would seriously benefit from adopting Debian as a
> platform over SVR4. We use Linux exclusively, not because it's cheap,
> but because it is the BEST platform for our requirements.
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Shuttleworth
> Thawte Consulting
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