ARTICLE: Free For All

[KevinO]

"Charles A. Reynolds" wrote:
> 
> 1.    Can somebody name an open source operating system without the word
> LINUX in it?

Well ... How about Plan9 http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/ 
or FreeBSD http://www.freebsd.org/
???


> 2.    Can anyone take an open source application modify it and then use
> copywriter
>  protections against use by others?

That depends on the license it is under, some yes, some no.

> 3.    Why are people so interested in tearing down a company that has
> created more jobs
>  (directly or indirectly) than most industries?


1) There software sucks. I spent more time failing at trying to get
Office 2000 Pro installed on a WindowsNT box (hours) today than I did
redoing and fixing my DNS files on my LAN. And I have a LOT more
experience installing MSCrap(tm) than doing DNS.

2) They are trying to take over the world, and having much success. This
limits all of our freedoms, in many ways.

3) Their software is way to expensive.

4) Their software has chronic security problems- Oops, I guess that
falls under number 1.

We could go on all day with this one.

> After reading the article in more detail I do not believe that the author
> understands Open
> Source as I do.  Does IBM ship its Mainframes with proprietary information?
> No.

Ever hear of AIX ???

> Does SUN
> Microsystems ship all of its proprietary information with each system?  No.

Ever hear of Solaris ???

> Does Oracle ship
> systems with proprietary information? No.

I don't think Oracle ships systems. They just sell software, and it is
proprietary !

 
> Does just the fact that an application comes with source make it an Open
> Source Software?

See http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html for one
definition.


> 
> Can any IT manager justify spending resources to enrich the community at
> large at the expense
> of the companies objective?  No.

But they do it in order to promote the company's objectives more and
more all of the time, and there are many examples of this.

> 
> Why is the open source community adverse to the notion of profit?

Who is ?



-- 
Kevin O'Connor
 
 "People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun
... 
 
The GNU Manifesto - Copyright (C) 1985, 1993 Free Software Foundation,
Inc.