Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 15:12:10 +0100 From: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: interesting licensing quote Message-ID: <20010620151210.A99772@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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I found this on a forum about the WSJ article: <quote> This article should make both the knee-jerk MS-bashers and the knee-jerk MS-defenders stop and think for a moment. As the author explained very convincingly, Microsoft has used open source BSD code quite selfishly, for its own ends, but has done so quite legally. There isn't anything apparently illegal about what Microsoft has done with the BSD code, but it is perhaps hypocritical, considering their recent open-source bashing. This article made me think about my own opinions of the BSD and GPL licenses. I think I tend to come across as a bit of a GPL zealot, but I can see how in some cases, BSD is a better choice. If the BSD sockets code had been under the GPL, Microsoft wouldn't have used it, and likely as not they would have developed a completely incompatible TCP/IP programming interface. As it is, sockets have become something of a standard, and Unix and Windows programmers can understand and modify each other's TCP/IP code without too much trouble. So in this case, the BSD code has won a victory for interoperability. </quote> Jonathon -- "It is through will alone I set my mind in motion...." To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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