IT Giants Accused of Exploiting Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "A top European Commission official has accused major IT players such as IBM, HP and Sun of using the open source community as mere subcontractors rather than encouraging them to develop independent commercial products. Jesús Villasante, head of software technologies at the commission, said: 'The open source community today [is a] subcontractor of American multinationals. Open source communities need to take themselves seriously and realise they have contribution to themselves and society. From the moment they realise they are part of the evolution of society and try to influence it, we will be moving in the right direction.'"

Comments

Re:The hand that feeds them

[m50d]

Openoffice was only opened up after KOffice had started. I think without OOo linux office suites would actually be in a better place - koffice is cleaner, less bloated, and better documented, and if (big if, I know, but still) all the effort that went into OOo went into it instead we would see more returns.

Re:Everyone for themself

[the_xaqster]

....I'd be if I were up all night coding a release, and then, suddenly, my commerical counterpart announces a new build, new features, and and an upgrade fee the next day!

But what would stop you getting the sources, incorperating their improvements into your code, adding a new feature that people will want, but not enough people to justify the company developing it, and releasing it yourself, for free? Or even just taking the Open source code and releasing it for free, changing for support? Then the company is left changing for the same (or less featureful) product you are now giving away.

Open source cuts both ways. They can base their commercial app on your code, but you can base your code on their commercial app.

Swings and roundabouts really.

Re:Everyone for themself

[ajs318]

That's a big black mark against the {three-clause} BSD licence. At least if you used the GPL, or a source-only BSD licence {i.e. not allowing binary distribution} then any "competing" product based on your code can never be made closed-source. You will have the advantage that anything they do, you also can do, and probably for less money than they want for it.

The BSD people are very aware of this, and work their collective behinds off to keep software free. But it's a trap for the unwary.

Remember! BSD = sharing is not theft, GPL = not sharing is theft.

Breaking the Code

[NickFortune]

From TFA:

He Said:

"Open source communities need to take themselves seriously and realise they have contribution to themselves and society.

He Meant:

Open source coders need to form startups which can be bought up and crushed.

He Said:

From the moment they realise they are part of the evolution of society and try to influence it, we will be moving in the right direction

He Meant:

Open source communities have realised they are a part of the evolution of society and are influencing it but not in a direction that my paymasters find profitable

He Said:

Companies are using the potential of communities as subcontractors -- the open source community today [is a] subcontractor of American multinationals

He Meant:

Maybe if I can make them feel as if they are losing out they'll all get discouraged and do something else.

He Said:

What I think is that Europe doesn't have a software industry today

He Meant:

And it isn't going to have one tomorrow either if I have any say in the matter.

He Said:

Open source is a complete mess -- many people do lots of different things. There's total confusion today

He Meant

I really, really really don't get this open source thing. Really, I'm a clue free zone.

Or am attributing to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity?

Re:Getting sick of European leaders trashing Ameri

[NitsujTPU]

I'm getting sick of Americans trashing America.

I'm also getting sick of people on Slashdot trashing America.

I'm also sick of people on Slashdot trashing Slashdot (figure that one out).

There really is nothing quite like sitting at dinner with an American girl explaining to her dining companions, all or almost all American, what a bunch of heathens we are, and how much we could learn from those overseas. What really bothers me is that this is intended to somehow exempt them from judgement. Americans explaining how dumb their countrymen are really do not sound any more intelligent for having done so.

Re:Bah to your 'Hmph'

[LWATCDR]

"we'd be stuck in the 80's or early 90's where all software is commercial crap, shareware crap, and all of the power over computer users would belong to big companies "
I can only guess that you where not around in the 80s. Not all software in the 80's commercial or shareware. There was also a ton of FREE SOFTWARE around before RMS started his religion. Think GCC was the first free c compiler? Look up small c sometime.

RMS didn't change the world. The real truth is if it was not for Linux there is a very good chance that RMS and GPL would be a footnote.

Re:I HATE KWord

[Dogtanian]

LOL, you hate the software and avoid it, because it crashed for you 3 years before? How pathetic.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!

I hate the software and avoid it because it crashed the first time I used it. And again. And again. It crashed whenever I wanted to change the typeface in a document. In other words, I had to conciously try to avoid the problem area every time I used the damn thing and it *still* crashed.

That was a pretty fundamental bug to have slipped through testing. What did it say about the rest of the product? Not something I'd want to have to rely on.

It was the equivalent of coming to a job interview with ketchup stains all over your shirt. You can change the shirt if it affects your ability to do the job, but the fact you didn't bother in the first place gives a bad overall impression of your attitude/abilities.

You know something? If I had a good reason to, I'd probably have given it another go by now. But I have OOo, MS Word and LaTeX, and I can't be bothered. Yeah, I'm human; KWord failed me repeatedly when I didn't have time to waste, and unless there's a compelling reason to give it another go, I'm not wasting time with it.

As if

[xenocide2]

Just because the Open Source Movement isn't as openly communist as some socialist EU official would have liked doesn't mean it doesn't meet its goals of open software.

If the problem is truly that IBM and the like are selling branded Open Source, and people are buying it, then the GPL will lubricate the production of competitors for 'IBM Open Source.' If this official somehow wants society to realize that IBM software isn't so different from, say, Debian software, well then I hope he's got the cash to market to the purchasing managers.

I contend that the "Open Source Community" is taking itself seriously, which is why more and more of these programmers are becoming subcontractors. Hell, a lot of the kernel work is done by people paid by big companies to do so. If it appears to be a complete mess, its because, in part, it is so. Amatuers and professionals alike can write software; by saying something close to "you want IBM Open Source" IBM is putting its professional word behind the software. Open source is not a centrally planned economny, no matter how many people have told you that the GPL reeks of socialism and that RMS echoes the rhetoric of famous Communists.