[ale] More from Business Week

[Matt Magee]

I read the article last night and was shocked by the lack of research the 
author did.  Almost everything about Free Software, Open Source, 
compatibility and the very nature of Linux itself was misrepresented.  

The author's description of Linus Torvalds would make a reader believe that 
he alone controlled the development of Linux as a whole, rather than the 
kernel itself.  If I were a manager within a corporation, I would certainly 
be scared off by that idea.

The article suggested that R.M.S. didn't like the idea of people making money 
from software, which is silly.  It is difficult to profit from the 
distribution of software that has been GPL'd, but it does not go against 
Stallman's view of "free as in speech".

Compatibility isssues were mentioned in the article that don't exist.  It was 
suggested that Intel's processors were not compatible with Linux and that 
Intel had only recently begun making CPUs for Linux machines.  Perhaps some 
confusion over Palladium ?  I was also surprised by the comment about MS 
Office document files.  Perhaps no one at Sun had told the author about 
StarOffice's push for compatibility with MS Office?  I personally have not 
had significant problems opening Office Docs in S.O.

Perhaps we should voice our concerns about the (lack of) quality of the 
article to the editors at Business Week?


On Saturday 22 February 2003 10:40 am, you wrote:
> Reading "The Linux Uprising", one quote rubbed me the wrong way:
>
> "Before using open-source software, tech companies must sign a license in
> which they promise to give away innovations they build on top of it."
>
> Why must the press always confuse open source with the GPL?  It's blatant
> misinformation, and I'll bet that sentence turns some managers away from
> considering open source software.
>
> The GPL is a great license, but there are so many other open source
> licenses out there that do allow you to redistribute without open sourcing
> your code.  I wish that just once, a large-scale non-tech oriented
> magazine like Business Week would set this record straight.
>
> I'm not as hard core in my beliefs as Stallman, and I choose to view open
> source as an attitude, not a license.
>
> BS like this only contributes to Microsoft's FUD and cancer commentary.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
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