Re: JFORK: Or a reasonable response to the Sun SCSL
Hi John,
I've been following debian-hurd myself the last few months. If you
could send some URLs, other than the usual hurd ones, on the hurd
architecture(translators,etc) and perhaps detail your thoughts on a HURD
VM (eg cross-platform, structure, etc), I would be very interested.
Jim
John Foster wrote:
>
> I have been watching this thread for some time and feel that some
> reality is in order for anyone interested in this subject.
>
> My 2 cents worth:
>
> 1. Sun and all other commercial ventures exist solely for the purpose of
> making money. They will sometimes do some things that seem to be for the
> "good of mankind", but those things generally have some "lucrative"
> aspect to them (read SCSL).
>
> 2. The aspect of making money is not "a bad thing" in itself. The
> acquisition of profit by using deceptive tactics is "a bad thing".
> 3. The owner of any original patent/copyright license has the right to
> alter that patent at will. For instance if Sun decides to not make
> StarOffice available under the SCSL they do have the right, because they
> bought it, to make StarOffice a commercial package. They can do so at
> will.
>
> 4. Technically/legally Sun or Microsoft, or AOL and many others, could
> alter the terms of the current license structures so that "open source"
> "free" software ceases to exist. If Linas Torvalds decided that the next
> kernel version of Linux was not to be GPL software, he has the right to
> do it. Does that shock you? If it does then you need to read up on the
> U.S. patent and trademark guidelines as they apply to intellectual
> property, especially software.
>
> 5. There is a huge movement in Europe to keep software patents out of
> the legal system. I do not think they will be successful. However,
> "THE ACTIONS TAKEN BY ALL INTERESTED PEOPLE WITH REGARD TO SUN'S SCSL
> AND THE APPLICATION OF IT'S GUIDELINES WILL SET A PRECEDENT FOR YEARS TO
> COME"
>
> 6. In my opinion "the best interests of free open source software will
> be served by pushing forward with development of the GNU HURD system and
> the implementation of a HURD Virtual Machine language that has all the
> capabilities of Java as it is now, but is more likely to remain free.
>
> 7. If Debian and all the other Linux communities continue to put forth
> free software that is portable to all hardware systems they represent a
> serious threat to all commercial software.
>
> 8. A HURD VM is possible due to the nature of its message passing system
> and would be the most reasonable course to pursue for the development of
> portable software. This course would basically make Java obsolete, and
> would allow the use of many types of inexpensive hardware solutions to
> replace Sun's expensive servers and workstations. This is what they are
> concerned about.
>
> All my best wishes to the people who assist in the "Free Software"
> movement, and especially to those of you that do the actual development
> of applications.
> --
> John Foster
> AdVance-Computing Systems
> jfoster@augustmail.com
> ICQ# 19460173
>
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