Open Source, Proprietary Vendors Force Change On Each Other
This week finds open source and proprietary vendors making maneuvers in response to competitive threats they pose to each other. Mostly, these maneuvers involve Microsoft. Sun Microsystems said it plans to work with Microsoft to develop single sign-on technology for
networks. Then, the two companies will work together to unify Java and
Microsoft .Net. This week finds open source and proprietary vendors making maneuvers in response to competitive threats they pose to each other. Mostly, these maneuvers involve Microsoft.
Sun Microsystems said it plans to work with Microsoft to develop single sign-on technology for
networks. Then, the two companies will work together to unify Java and
Microsoft .Net. CRN writer Elizabeth Montalbano explains the background:
"After years of animosity, Sun and Microsoft in early April signed a 10-year
pact to collaborate on technology interoperability. Microsoft also paid Sun
$2.4 billion to settle the companies' pending lawsuits over Java licensing."
Microsoft and Sun both claim their alliance is not anti-Linux, which is
about as believable as a Hollywood starlet claiming she never had plastic
surgery.
Microsoft also said on Tuesday that it's holding talks with Asian
governments to provide inexpensive, cut-down versions of Windows. The stated
reason: to help the poor. That's certainly true, given Gates's philanthropy
record - but it's also true that Windows is getting hottest competition in
Third World countries that can't afford Windows
Of course, you have to wonder whether it makes more sense for poor people,
with incomes of just a few hundred dollars a year, to pay for a software
product when they can get the equivalent for free. If you give a man a fish,
he eats for a day, but if you give him an open source fish, he ... if you
charge licensing fees for the fishing rods ... well, that doesn't make sense
at all, does it? I need to work on that metaphor.
Microsoft on Monday introduced cha
nges to the licensing terms of Windows CE. The changes let developers
modify and redistribute Windows CE source code.
Interestingly, Microsoft says its Windows CE licensing program is superior
to the Linux General Public License (GPL) because Microsoft's license allows
creators of derivative work to keep that work proprietary. They're not
required to share their work with anyone, not even Microsoft. Linux
developers must share their work with everyone, including competitors.
That's similar to the argument raised by FreeBSD advocates, who tout their
licensing scheme as a means of allowing developers to have the benefits of
open source while keeping their own work proprietary.
Linux advocates counter that the GPL is superior because developers benefit
more by being able to share others' work than they do by keeping their work
proprietary.
I suspect the reality is that this is one of those false dichotomies created
by extremists on both sides (and by editorial writers - oh, heavens, that's
ME, isn't it?! Goodness!). Some licenses will be best for some applications,
others for others.
Sun said Tuesday it is opening the source code to its "Looking Glass,"
an innovative, 3-D Linux desktop that allows users to turn windows on edge
or at an oblique angle or make them appear to move off into the distance.
Sun also opened the Java 3D API, and JDesktop Integration Components.
JBoss is making a show
of Linux industry solidarity at JavaOne this week, the first time the
open source company has exhibited there. Previously, JBoss boycotted the
conference to protest that JBoss didn't have a J2EE license from Sun.
And BEA defended its
decision not to join the Eclipse Foundation, saying it has no desire to
build its WebLogic Workshop tool on the Eclipse integrated development
environment.
P.S. After writing the preceding and sending it out in the Linux Pipeline
Newsletter, we learned that Sun Microsystems plans to open up nearly all of its Solaris code,
including "all the rocket science."
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