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.

He's a liar.

[twitter]

He knows that free software has improved relative to itself and he knows that lots of free software is better than his own software in every kind of way. He would like his customers to think otherwise.

At this point, I'd say he was lying when he first proclaimed free software impossible back in 1976. The group of people he presented that letter to were making things that whipped the commercial world at the time and members moved on to form companies like Apple. The lie is so brazen today that it removes the last shadows of doubt.