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Maui X-Stream: GPL Violations, Lies, and Damn Lies
Jeremy writes "Drunkenbatman is at it again. This time he takes apart Maui X-Stream and all the who and whats that go along with it. Deconstructing Maui X-Stream has GPL Violations with reproducable proof (not done this myself), chat logs, and double talk from the CEO's and supposed authors of the software."
As a consultant for several large companies, I'd always done my work on
Windows. Recently however, a top online investment firm asked us to do
some work using Linux. The concept of having access to source code was
very appealing to us, as we'd be able to modify the kernel to meet our
exacting standards which we're unable to do with Microsoft's products.
Although we met several technical challenges along the way
(specifically, Linux's lack of Token Ring support and the fact that we
were unable to defrag its ext2 file system), all in all the process
went smoothly. Everyone was very pleased with Linux, and we were
considering using it for a great deal of future internal projects.
So you can imagine our suprise when we were informed by a lawyer that
we would be required to publish our source code for others to use. It
was brought to our attention that Linux is copyrighted under something
called the GPL, or the Gnu Protective License. Part of this license
states that any changes to the kernel are to be made freely available.
Unfortunately for us, this meant that the great deal of time and money
we spent "touching up" Linux to work for this investment firm would
now be available at no cost to our competitors.
Furthermore, after reviewing this GPL our lawyers advised us that any
products compiled with GPL'ed tools - such as gcc - would also have to
its source code released. This was simply unacceptable.
Although we had planned for no one outside of this company to ever
use, let alone see the source code, we were now put in a difficult
position. We could either give away our hard work, or come up with
another solution. Although it was tought to do, there really was no
option: We had to rewrite the code, from scratch, for Windows 2000.
I think the biggest thing keeping Linux from being truly competitive
with Microsoft is this GPL. Its draconian requirements virtually
guarentee that no business will ever be able to use it. After my
experience with Linux, I won't be recommending it to any of my
associates. I may reconsider if Linux switches its license to
something a little more fair, such as Microsoft's "Shared Source".
Until then its attempts to socialize the software market will insure
it remains only a bit player.
Thank you for your time.
HAND
FREAKIN' LOAL DUDES!!!!
Our company was considering using open source tools and applications as part of the suite we develelop. The beancounters were intrigued by the idea that we could use huge swathes of exisiting code with our own, and charge for support and customisation, but felt it was worth an experiment.
But then our boss did some more research, lurking on the community boards for free software. He was shocked by the attitude and venom caused when users noticed someone infringing the GPL. Most of the time the people who wrote the code weren't even involved in the discussion. He realised that if we made the slightest mistake under the terms of the GPL, even if it was only a perceived mistake, we'd have to spend the next 10 moonths dealing with these people. He canned the project immediately.
Stop the hysteria, people. You're harming open source!
A hot lead enema, you fucking towel head piece of shit. You hear that? THE USA IS COMING FOR YOU FUCKS NEXT!
Flamebait, eh? :)
Can you please point out where what I've said isn't true?
All about me
Interesting how this article which does everything the infamous MoG article did is praised yet MoG gets slammed.
People's addresses and other personal contact information are being published. Oh the horror public information is being made public. Just shocking. This person should be banned.
Drive away every possible helpful commercial endevor from Linux.
Keep it up folks! Your doing great!
I think it's time for one last FOSS project, produce a completely (L)GPL encomberance free API layer to Linux that actually allows people to write software for the OS without you license Natzi's constantly calling out the dogs on anyone that, God fobid, tries to develop a commercial application or hardware for Linux!