The Engadget Mobile Interview: Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun
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| Unlike Microsoft and others, we actually view the success of the free
| software as a good thing, we are enormously pro-GPL, enormously pro free
| software, enormously pro the Mozilla license, the BSD license.
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http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/05/02/the-engadget-mobile-interview-jonathan-schwartz-ceo-of-sun/
Recent (a week or so ago):
Bill Gates’ Disdain for Open Source Even in Retirement
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| Without compromise there is no progress. In the software world Gates was the
| Godfather he didn’t need to work with anyone until the Justice Department
| ruled against him. Even as the richest man in the world he’s got to work
| together with researchers and others if he wants to be successful. Too bad he
| didn’t learn anything about open source’s collaborative values it might have
| served him well as he tries to help cure disease and improve world health
| standards.
|
| I have to wonder if he will be able to make the transition from dictator to
| do-gooder or if he will just write checks?
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http://socializedsoftware.com/2008/04/24/bill-gates-disdain-for-open-source-even-in-retirement/
Bill Gates, which we disagree with
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| As but one more piece of testamentary evidence that the old guard at
| Microsoft needs to be shown the door, Bill Gates has demonstrated
| conclusively that he has exactly zero understanding of open source, or at
| least zero desire to have an intelligent discussion about it.
|
| [...]
|
| Open source insists upon leaving software open to further improvement. And if
| you were to read the European Union's report on open source, you'd see that
| it's actually a massive opportunity for improved GDP growth.
|
| What open source does is ensure that customers share equally in the economic
| benefits of software, rather than having profits hoarded by one company
| (i.e., Microsoft's model). The GPL does this perhaps best of all. In another
| age, Mr. Gates would have found the GPL to be a dear friend to his better
| capitalist instincts. It's actually a close cousin to a proprietary license
| in some ways, except that it protects through openness, not closed source.
`----
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9927661-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Bill Gates Claims Open Source Means Nobody Can Improve Software
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| His complaint is that open source creates a license "so that nobody can ever
| improve the software." It's hard to figure out how to respond to that
| statement since it's the exact opposite of how open source software works.
| The exact point is that anyone can improve the software. It's proprietary
| software like Microsoft's that's limited such that only Microsoft is allowed
| to improve it. It's no secret that Gates isn't a fan of open source software,
| but it still seems odd that he would make a statement that is so obviously
| false, both in theory and in practice. Perhaps old FUD habits die hard, but
| one would hope that as he enters "retirement" he'll have a more open mind on
| such things.
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20080423/004519925.shtml
Bill Gates on Pharmaceuticals: The System Isn't Working
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| One thing Gates won't be leaving behind in retirement is his distaste for
| open source software. After one scientist asked if Gates would consider open
| source uses in health research, the man who built his $280 billion company on
| the power of intellectual property bristled.
|
| "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."
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http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/bill-gates-what.html
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