[news]Gates on open source: We've been misconstrued!
Gates on open source: We've been misconstrued! Gates: Open-source GPL is 'Pac-Man-like' "Gates said Microsoft's stance on open source "has been misconstrued in many ways. It's a topic that you can leap on and say, 'Microsoft doesn't make free software.' Hey, we have free software, the world will always have free software. I mean, if you characterize it that way, that's not right. But if you say to people, 'Do you understand the GPL?' (then) they're pretty stunned when the Pac-Man-like nature of it is described to them." http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5092935,00.html -- -- ----/ / _ Fred A. Miller ---/ / (_)__ __ ____ __ Systems Administrator --/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / Cornell Univ. Press Services -/____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\ fm@cupserv.org
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 10:57 am, Fred A. Miller wrote:
Gates on open source: We've been misconstrued!
Gates: Open-source GPL is 'Pac-Man-like'
"Gates said Microsoft's stance on open source "has been misconstrued in many ways. It's a topic that you can leap on and say, 'Microsoft doesn't make free software.' Hey, we have free software, the world will always have free software. I mean, if you characterize it that way, that's not right. But if you say to people, 'Do you understand the GPL?' (then) they're pretty stunned when the Pac-Man-like nature of it is described to them."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5092935,00.html
Asking Microsoft to explain the GPL is like asking the Devil to explain the Bible.
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 11:23, you wrote:
Gates: Open-source GPL is 'Pac-Man-like'
Asking Microsoft to explain the GPL is like asking the Devil to explain the Bible.
Here is an interesting discovery I made: "Indeed, GCC has spread as far as Microsoft, which ships the compiler as part of its Interix software, which enables Unix software to run on Windows computers." from: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6321677.html You know if open source and the GPL are such a threat to Mr. Gates how come he uses it? -- Cheers, Jonathan
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 19:19, Jonathan Drews wrote:
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 11:23, you wrote:
Gates: Open-source GPL is 'Pac-Man-like'
Asking Microsoft to explain the GPL is like asking the Devil to explain the Bible.
Here is an interesting discovery I made: "Indeed, GCC has spread as far as Microsoft, which ships the compiler as part of its Interix software, which enables Unix software to run on Windows computers." from: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6321677.html
You know if open source and the GPL are such a threat to Mr. Gates how come he uses it?
Actually, I have been at MS TechEd all week listening first hand to the subject of many of the articles commented on lately. I was at the Interix talk yesterday, and it was quite interesting. MS bought a company (forget the name, now) a couple of years ago that had begun to develop a Unix subsystem that worked on top of the Hardware Abstraction Layer for Windows, the same as the Win32 portion does. The Unix subsystem uses the same functional components in the system that Win32 does; i.e., file i/o, networking services, security (don't laugh) are all handled using the same functional subsystems. NT/W2K ships with a POSIX subsystem - the Interix subsystem replaces that. Apparently the MS team that has been working on this has ported over just about anything that you could want, as noted, gcc, but also things like apache. The purpose is not to be able to run something like apache on a Windows subsystem in a Unix environment. The purpose is to be able to run a Unix application and send/receive I/O from that Unix program into the Win32/.net system. I saw a program called tides run on Unix, taking input from a Win32 web form and spitting output to stdout, but pulled across to Win32 and output on the web form. In fact, the output of the tides program could be used like a COM object in Excel, and the data plotted. -ronc
Hi Ron and Others: Below is some more info from a freind at my Linux SIG, on Interix and Microsoft's involvement in GPL. Please note the name of the company acquired by M$: Open NT: I am familiar with the Interix software. It is basically a product that gives NT a POSIX/UNIX personality. It comes with most of the basic UNIX utilities, but I didn't know that it came with GCC. It is similar to CygWin32 and MKS, but works at a lower level instead of sitting atop the Win32 API. The way the NT micro-kernel works allows multiple API personalities to sit above the microkernel. So you'd have a UNIX personality and a Win32 personality both sitting on the machine, allowing programs of both varieties to run at the same time. The micro-kernel handles the process scheduling, and some black magic is done to allow both sides to share the file system and some of the other resources. I think that MacOS X does a similar thing with the MacOS 9 and NeXT/OpenStep APIs. Interix was an independent company that Microsoft bought out a couple years ago. It used to go under the name OpenNT a couple years before that, when the company was called Softway. I have no idea why Microsoft bought them out -- it doesn't look like they're pushing the software much, but it doesn't look like they're trying to get rid of it either. Craig -- Cheers, Jonathan
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 22:11, Jonathan Drews wrote:
Hi Ron and Others:
Interix was an independent company that Microsoft bought out a couple years ago. It used to go under the name OpenNT a couple years before that, when the company was called Softway. I have no idea why Microsoft bought them out -- it doesn't look like they're pushing the software much, but it doesn't look like they're trying to get rid of it either.
Hi, Craig: That's corporate talk for "burying the competition", isn't it? :) Tom
On Thursday 21 June 2001 01:11, Jonathan Drews wrote:
Interix was an independent company that Microsoft bought out a couple years ago. It used to go under the name OpenNT a couple years before that, when the company was called Softway. I have no idea why Microsoft bought them out -- it doesn't look like they're pushing the software much, but it doesn't look like they're trying to get rid of it either.
Craig
The presenter for Interix at MS TechEd said that Interix was the best kept secret at Microsoft. Not a secret because they were trying to make it that way, but just because no one knows that they are there. Interesing. -ronc
"There are people who believe that commercial software should not exist at all--that there should be no jobs or taxes around commercial software at all," Gates said. While that's a small group, "the GPL was created with that goal in mind. And so people should understand the GPL. When people say open source, they often mean the GPL." Ya - ok Bill, whatever. For a man that's made billions you sure can sound like a f&*$ing moron sometimes. Maybe GPL has a deeper issue then that of a socialistic paradigm! Maybe it's geared to the furtherence of a technology outside of a commercial venue. I don't see anything in the GPL that states that you must give a product that's been developed away for free. I only see it addressing issue related to scientific and technologies in light of opening a knowledge base for the world communtiy to have access to the lastest developments. It's intended to follow the scientific model. Credit must be given to each developer and no one person or entity can deny the development community access to discoveries or inovations in this field. But then you know this don't you Bill. I'd think with all your money you could pay for a professional speech writer to help you from repeatedly sticking you foot in you mouth. What an idiot, and anyone that take your statements as fact is a greater idiot. Just MHO. Curtis On Wednesday 20 June 2001 11:23 am, Steven Hatfield wrote:
On Wednesday 20 June 2001 10:57 am, Fred A. Miller wrote:
Gates on open source: We've been misconstrued!
Gates: Open-source GPL is 'Pac-Man-like'
"Gates said Microsoft's stance on open source "has been misconstrued in many ways. It's a topic that you can leap on and say, 'Microsoft doesn't make free software.' Hey, we have free software, the world will always have free software. I mean, if you characterize it that way, that's not right. But if you say to people, 'Do you understand the GPL?' (then) they're pretty stunned when the Pac-Man-like nature of it is described to them."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5092935,00.html
Asking Microsoft to explain the GPL is like asking the Devil to explain the Bible.
participants (6)
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Curtis Rey -
Fred A. Miller -
Jonathan Drews -
Ron Cordell -
Steven Hatfield -
tom poe