Gates: Say No to GPL, Yes to the Microsoft Ecosystem

Andy Tai writes "As part of Microsoft's campaign against the GPL, Bill Gates is personally coming to the front line to launch attacks. While speaking at the Government Leadership Conference, Gates argues against spending R&D dollars for GPLed software development. He suggests countries that look to adapt the GPL model are denying "the benefits of an eco-system that has worked extremely well in the United States" and they should copy the system in the US (where Microsoft has an monopoly). He further suggests that source code availability is not generally needed, and when it is needed, Microsoft provides it. Invoking words like "capitalism" and "innovation", Gates argues that free software can exist, but should be like a free unix called "VSB" (probably a transcription error for BSD), without the GPL around it. Gates continues: 'A government can fund research work on BFP, UNIX, and still have commercial companies in their country start off around that type of work. You know, technology policies like biotech -- you only -- if your universities are doing work that can be commercialized, you will have IT jobs in your country. And if they are not, then fine, just say that farming is your thing, or whatever it is. All the taxes will be paid by those guys or something -- I don't know. And the farmers will go home at night and work on the source code.' It is interesting to note that Microsoft is increasingly using the same "ecosystem" arguments for defending itself in the anti-trust trial and attacks on the GPL."

Comments

Ecosystem analogies:

[datastew]

Give added emphasis to the word "Micro-serfs"

Re:Ecosystem analogies:

[Anonymous Coward]

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the liar sleeps tonight."

Re:Ecosystem analogies:

[d.valued]

For a more correct analogy, let's look at things this way.

When you use the GPL, you are obliged to share if and only if you make the program externally-available. (Under the GPL, if you create a proram and ue it only internally, you can technically be GPL-compliant so long as it is never made available to the public.)

In the beginning, you have the raw elements and the sun providing energy. Plants come in, take in some of the elements and create beneficial compounds (compilers, linkers, languages, which equate to the O2 and sugars). Plant-eating animals come in, they take up the basic compounds and turn it into their own bodies biologically, or archetipical, core, or alpha software depending. Higher animals come in, and use what has been built to build their own muscle, fat, and code, and so on and so on. If an animal (project) dies for some reason, the code is there to be re-used by the decomposers and students and budding neo-hackers.

Microsoft's system, on the other hand, wants to become a vacuum cleaner, or a factory. THat's a little better. The rest of the ecosystem exists to an extent, but once in a while, an animal is 'collected' (either a corpse collected or created), processed, and then sold as Can O' Crap, The Mystery Meat You Gotta Eat(tm). This diminishes the rest of the ecosystem. Not to mention the pollution that such a factory does kills off species and projects that aren't defended, both in the processing and in the waste products.

Go bill gates!

[7-Vodka]

I'll go home and change all my stuff to VSB straight away. Christ was I deluded!
Thank God someone like him, with no alteriour motives and a heart of gold, is around to steer humanity back on track.

Is it me...

[!ramirez]

Is it me, or does Gates sound a little high in this interview? I mean, this guy, by all accounts, is pretty GD smart whether you want to admit it or not, and here he's giving answers like "All the taxes will be paid by those guys or something -- I don't know. And the farmers will go home at night and work on the source code."

Who the hell would want to go home from a day of backbusting labor and work on source code?

The unedited version

[new death barbie]

You know, technology policies like biotech -- you only -- if your universities are doing work that can be commercialized, you will have IT jobs in your country. And if they are not, then fine, just say that farming is your thing, or whatever it is. All the taxes will be paid by those guys or something -- I don't know. And the farmers will go home at night and work on the source code -- SNAKES! SNAKES! GET AWAY! STOP LOOKING AT ME! ALL OF YOU! STOP IT! STOP LOOKING!

[At this point, Mr. Gates was carried from the stage. He is resting comfortably at Betty Ford Clinic.]

Eco-whatever

[CaptainCarrot]

I suppose you could describe a large predator messily devouring any and all smaller species that cross its path as an "ecosystem", but I think there are better ways to label it.

"Feeding frenzy".

"Killing fields".

"Abattoir".

Collective Reaction

[smagruder]

Gates: I'm the richest man on Earth, made all my money from the software business, and I'm asking you all to develop software in such a way as to make me, an *American*, even richer.

World: Riiiiiiiiiiight.

About the "taxes" comment

[Brian Stretch]

I think I understand one thing that Bill Gates & Co. is bitter about. Microsoft and its 20,000+ employees pay $billions in taxes every year, a portion of which is used by various governments to sue Microsoft for even more money, and at the behest of their competitors (in exchange for "campaign contributions") no less!

Just to add insult to injury, they're facing one hell of a competitive threat from open source crews who are giving away software, ie, not paying taxes!

Yeah, I know, the people who use the software still chip in. But Red Hat ain't exactly coughing up $gigabucks to the taxman.

I suspect he's wondering why these Democrat AG's can't figure this out.

It's one of the things I like about open source :-).

Re:Doe he understand what he's talking about?

[spike hay]

Netcraft confirms the truth: *VSB is dying

Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *VSB community when recently IDC confirmed that *VSB accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *VSB has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *VSB is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *VSB's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *VSB faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *VSB because *VSB is dying. Things are looking very bad for *VSB. As many of us are already aware, *VSB continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeVSB is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

OpenVSB leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenVSB. How many users of NetVSB are there? Let's see. The number of OpenVSB versus NetVSB posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. VSB/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetVSB posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of VSB/OS. A recent article put FreeVSB at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeVSB users. This is consistent with the number of FreeVSB Usenet posts.

All major surveys show that *Netcraft confirms the truth: *Netcraft confirms the truth: *VSB is dying
Fact: *VSB is dead

Re:Doe he understand what he's talking about?

[ProfMoriarty]

Gates definitely knows what BSD

Actually ... it's BSoD ... it happened at a Windows 98 Press conference.

It's you, but don't worry we can help.

[Erris]

BTW RMS has said things to me in person that are way wierder than anything in the article, anything Gates has said to me personaly and for that matter stupider than anything said or attributed to Dan Quayle or GWB.

Hmmm, how often do you have these personal conversations? Have you been taking your pills?

What Is Bill Smoking?

[Caraig]

What is Bill Gates smoking? and why isn't he sharing?

Oh, right, this is Microspliff. It's probably some sort of proprietary smack.

All I can say to that:

[jesterzog]

All that I can honestly say to that is that if the US has such a great software ecosystem, why is there so much inbreeding?

Ignorant savages.

[flacco]

It's called Divine Right of Kings, you filthy peasants.

Now shut up, get back in the fields, and till some earth. Or the King will have you drawn and quartered, and the Church will damn you to hell.

Something Funny

[Spencerian]

?l, it's -- I don't mean to be facetious, but capitalism is something that's hard for me to defend, because it seems to work. (Laughter.)

That's like Lucifer saying, "Evil is something that's hard for me to defend, because it seems to work."

What a crock of marketing shit. He says that GPL software can't be sold. Sure it can, in the form of tech support. MS doesn't sell their software, either. They sell a LICENSE to use their software. MS always owns the code. And that's what they object to in terms of the GPL.

And in other MS news of a recent acquisition (a classic):
http://bbspot.com/news/2000/4/MS_Buys_E vil.html