Re:catchiness
on
IT, Be Free!
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Is the need for open standards or open source "self evident"? To anybody in their mid-forties, or older, who studied any of the sciences, or anybody that studied the history of science, the answer is "yes".
Almost all of the technology that we love was developed in an environment of free exchange of ideas. Individuals laboured in isolation or small groups and freely published their ideas and discoveries for others to adopt, adapt, or criticize.
Derivative works made useful products - the production of which might be closed, secret or protected by laws. It was not until the early 1980s that it became common practice for basic researchers to turn to patents and secrets to protect or withhold their ideas from their colleagues and the world at large.
For example: where would we be with computer displays if the painter George Seurat (1859-91) had been able to say to the world: "No, no, no. It is only I that may make images by the laying of pure primary colors in minute dots upon a white background. The pointillism image that you produced is therefore my image and you and all those who have viewed it owe me $699 each".
Oh my. . . This just mutated into a SCO rant. Mod me down.
Slashdot Mirror
Is the need for open standards or open source "self evident"? To anybody in their mid-forties, or older, who studied any of the sciences, or anybody that studied the history of science, the answer is "yes".
Almost all of the technology that we love was developed in an environment of free exchange of ideas. Individuals laboured in isolation or small groups and freely published their ideas and discoveries for others to adopt, adapt, or criticize.
Derivative works made useful products - the production of which might be closed, secret or protected by laws. It was not until the early 1980s that it became common practice for basic researchers to turn to patents and secrets to protect or withhold their ideas from their colleagues and the world at large.
For example: where would we be with computer displays if the painter George Seurat (1859-91) had been able to say to the world: "No, no, no. It is only I that may make images by the laying of pure primary colors in minute dots upon a white background. The pointillism image that you produced is therefore my image and you and all those who have viewed it owe me $699 each".
Oh my. . . This just mutated into a SCO rant. Mod me down.