Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

John Terpstra on Challenges to Free Software

Posted by michael on from the you-want-to-fight dept.

Telex4 writes "Anyone who has read John Terpstra's article on Groklaw about Intellectual Property (IP) rights will be interested to read an interview I did recently with John at KDE's World Summit. We talked about what IP means to the free software community, how we can drive GNU/Linux adoption, and how he thinks the IT market will change in coming years. He gives us a lot to think about in terms of what more we should be doing."

15 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Change by StevenHenderson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He gives us a lot to think about in terms of what more we should be doing.

    Are we supposed to impose change on others? Is it just me, or are the most sweeping changes just gradually accepted - especially when current ideas need to be totally re-thought (i.e. Open vs. Closed Source)?

    1. Re:Change by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's a difference between imposition and advocacy. People can make (and have made) the case for free software in places where they have influence. They don't have to cram these ideas down anyone's throats; gradual acceptance will come when the software lives up to the advocacy.

  2. There is really only ONE challenge to free softwar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny


    Software that pays me to use it. Other than that, I'll stick with the free stuff.

  3. The First Person by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Funny

    The first person who says OSS when he means FS in this thread gets my metaphorical foot up his avatar ass.

    -Peter

    1. Re:The First Person by rozz · · Score: 4, Funny

      and the second only gets modded as "redundant" ? ... not fair

      --
      "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    2. Re:The First Person by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Actually, it's quite insightful. The two are really at odds philosophically. Despite the fact that they're both backed by non-profit organizations (one CA, one MA), there are differences. The FSF (the guys behind the Free Software trademark) is more academically oriented, and the OSF (the guys behind the Open Source trademark) is more commercially oriented)

      While there is much overlap, at least compared to proprietary, being aware of the significant differences between Free Software, Open Source Software, and Shared Source software.

  4. IP out of hand by scaaven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These days IP has spun out of control I think (in the patent office at least). You can get patents for things that are so common sense it's ridiculous. I liked on the Tonight Show when Dave Chapelle said he ran into this rich white guy, and when he asked how he got rich, the guy responded, "My family owns the patent for fire"

    --
    I know I'm going to be modded up on this
  5. trending toward open by dirvish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If IP law continues the way it is Free Software will be the only alternative for consumers. Businesses are treating their customers like criminals and these customers will only take it for so long. People are becoming aware of the draconian approach to IP and they are beginning to reject it in favor of more open solutions.

    --
    FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
    1. Re:trending toward open by over_exposed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. Granted, SOME people are becoming aware of the problem... Most of them just bend over and take it in the pooper because A) they don't know any better and B) even if they did, they don't think could do anything about it. Society is not as intelligent as we would all like to believe. Remember, 50% of people out there are dumber than average.

      --
      "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
  6. FLOSS like the enlightenment/reformation by belmolis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Terpstra's comparison of FLOSS to the Enlightenment and Reformation and of the negative reaction on the part of parts of the software and media industries to the reaction of the Church is interesting and I think well taken. We should remember that some countries in effect have still to undergo the Englightenment, that even in countries that did, many people remain who hold irrational and antiscientific views, and that in some countries the Counter-reformation was successful. The FLOSS movement is important for freedom and for technological progress, but precisely because it is important, its opponents will work hard to suppress it, and they may succeed.

  7. Warez by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don't mod me down, I'm serious ... the warez scene is the biggest contributer making software free (in the financial sense), and it's healthy for the industry. Seriously, what percentage of the apps on your Windows machine did you pay for, inclusing the OS itself? I'm about 50%, mostly games. But more software stimulates the industry, and what we use at home is what we want to use at work - and there's where the real money is, in the corporate world. The software publishers know this too, which is why it is so easy to find keygens for MS and other popular products ... people know Windows and Photoshop because they pirated them at home, and they want to use it at work where businesses won't pirate software. That is also the reason why game software has such annoying copy protection you don't see elsewhere, a "free" copy doesn't help sell 100 corporate licenses. Unless you work someplace where they do install games at every desktop, then please tell me where to send a resume.

    1. Re:Warez by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful
      " Seriously, what percentage of the apps on your Windows machine did you pay for, inclusing the OS itself?"

      100%. But then I learned that taking things without permission is wrong when I was in preschool.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  9. John needs to rethink what will reshape the market by thpr · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "There will be a fundamental reshaping of the market, which can only come from the bottom up, i.e. from the free software community and from small companies".

    "The two most important strategies we must adopt are to encourage and adhere to open standards, which undermine big IP oriented business' ability to monopolise and dominate the marketplace.

    I think John misses the point over what makes some companies dominate and why open source won't help small business.

    John doesn't have the same defintion of domination and the definition of "fundamental reshaping" as everyone else. Open source software has been VERY successful in the building blocks of software. GNU/Linux as an operating system; Eclipse as an IDE, MySQL as a database.

    However, there are niche applications where the open source investment will be slow, painful, and probably not pan out. If you think open source will unseat AutoCAD, don't hold your breath. It may happen, but it won't be this decade. And Adobe Photoshop STILL dominates in image processing, even though GIMP is rather useful.

    Domination (especially due to IP) is also a relative term. Microsoft can be seen to dominate the OS and "office" market today; those are prime targets of OS software. But IBM has a huge IP portfolio - is one of the large companies 'appear[ing] to support open source' and yet has a lot less to lose (on a relative scale to Microsoft). Even if IBM's software group (DB2, Lotus Notes, et al.) took it in the teeth from open source, is that going to have a (negative) impact on IBM Global Services? Will it not be the same dominating behemoth it is today?

    The "fundamental reshaping" of the market will come when technology becomes pervasive, reliable, and easy enough to use that the Fortune 500 doesn't NEED to call IBM Global Services any more. Until then, someone has to put everything together, and open source reducing the procurement cost isn't going to change that. Solve the reliability and ease of use problems for small business and you WILL win in the marketplace - whether or not you're open source.

  10. Make it easy to migrate by baggins2002 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I agree with Mr Terpstra that migration from closed source technology to open source technology should be simplified

    How about we start with migration of Win NT domain controllers to Samba domain controllers.

    For over 2 years I have held off on upgrading our NT Servers to 2000 or 2003 Servers in hopes that we could migrate to Samba.

    But I have yet seen a simplification of these migration path, unless you use roaming profiles. I don't know that many places where roaming profiles are utilized.
    And in a small to medium size business where there are 25 to 100 computers, transfering profiles and file permissions can be very time comsuming and expensive.
    To take Mr Terpstra's example of an Access database, I would rather do that, Oh wait, I already did that, but it was actually a SQL Server to PostgreSQL.

    So I'm still waiting for a reasonable migration path from NT Server to Samba.