Bill Gates On the GPL — "We Disagree"

Dionysius, God of Wine, writes with a link to an Ars Technica story, quoting Bill Gates: "'There's free software and then there's open source' he suggested, noting that Microsoft gives away its software in developing countries. With open source software, on the other hand, 'there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with.' Open source, he said, creates a license 'so that nobody can ever improve the software,' he claimed, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business. (Yes, Linux fans, we're aware of how distorted this definition is.) He went back to the analogy of pharmaceuticals: 'I think if you invent drugs, you should be able to charge for them,' he said, adding with a shrug: 'That may seem radical."

Comments

Re:Not radical to charge, just greedy.

[Enderandrew]

I'll probably get modded down for this, but as much good as RMS has done, he is a bit of a kook. And he doesn't believe software constitutes a product, I'm sorry, but he is mistaken.

He also said he would never willingly sign any software license of any kind, and believed them all to be evil, while now pushing an increasingly restrictive license himself.

And he has said on record numerous times that all software should be free as beer as well as free as speech in recent years, though I've heard he sometimes rescinds those statements in the light of companies like IBM, HP, Google, etc.

From what I understand, he also espouses a minimalist, non-material lifestyle, but most programmers need to make a living.