Perens Discredits Mundie's Attack On GPL

SaxMan101 writes "CNET has an editorial from Bruce Perens that quite handily dismantles Mundies attack on the GPL and the Liberty Alliance. He takes the time to make YA strong argument for free software which he backs up with real numbers. Well said, worth the read."

Comments

Re:The GPL is bad...to WHO ?????

[jdavidb]

(3) is not a problem if the people do not distribute the software. It is fine to modify and use GPL'ed code internally. The GPL only covers the rules for distributing the software. So basically, unless you plan to sell the product, this isn't a problem. Note that (2) in the original list is too narrowly defined; even if credit is given, our goals with the GPL (of increasing the free software code base) are not met when someone takes the code and makes a non-free derivation.

(4) If TCP/IP were replaced tomorrow with a new open protocol for which only a GPL'ed implementation existed, people could still write and market a non-free implementation. They just wouldn't be allowed to take my GPL'ed work and use it in a way I don't approve of.

But my real response to (4) is that, as a hardened free software advocate, I could care less whether or not people have a non-free implementation of any protocol.

(5) If companies want to release non-free code that is their prerogative. Eventually, I believe, the free implementations are going to surpass the proprietary implementations in quality, and make the proprietary model unviable. If they want to continue to make non-free products at that point, that is their prerogative.

Fundamental difference in Linux vs. Windows Admins

[Bruce Perens]

I was at a CTO roundtable the other day. A New York City investment banking CTO was talking about the difference between Linux/Unix admins and Windows admins (yes, Linux is widely employed in investment banking these days). Linux admins script a fix and don't touch it again, they just re-run the script. Windows admins don't script, for the most part. They push the same buttons on each system. This might be a big factor in increasing the Windows TCO. The bank claims they have many more Windows admins per system than Linux/Unix admins. I'll ask the CTO to write an article.

Bruce

Re:Pot Meet Kettle

[Bruce Perens]

Sheesh, that's pretty harsh of you. Please try some logical argument without the invective.

That US$1.9B is software that was released for the general public to use, and it does indeed have a lot of users. But I don't have a user count right now, all I have is the theoretical cost of production. The true benefit may be larger than I said. Given the amount of business around Linux, I doubt it's smaller.

In economic terms, the users will derive utility from the software. They will carry out some economic activity, for example operate a business, using that software, and will gain an economic benefit because of what they didn't pay for it. This benefit may well be greater than US$1.9B, since we have a lot of users these days. Again, the software didn't just go into /dev/null, it is now part of the economy. Engineers are familiar with thermodynamics, there are some parallels here, aren't there?

Bruce