[Ilugc] Are you serious?
- From: ksriram@xxxxxxx (Sriram Krishnan)
- Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 18:23:41 +0530
First of all, I'm not sure whether I should follow up on this discussion
as arguing against GPL on a Linux group may amount to trolling. So if
any of the members want me to stop, please do say so as I don't want to
offend anyone. I'll be more than happy to carry on this discussion off
the group - just mail me at ksriram@xxxxxxx if you feel that this group
is not an appropriate forum for this.
Engineering students who are serious about the software they use would
be interested in looking into the source code, to clearly understand
why
and how the software works. They would also think of improving or
modifying the source code to suit their needs. Please ask the
developers to release their software under the GPL so that we can get
your story without much difficulty :) If you are ignorant, helpless
and
clueless about the source code, and still you want to blindly use
something, you are inviting yourself and others for a grop in the dark,
where even grass can't grow ;)
Well, I'm not so sure whether that's true. I've been deeply involved
with .NET for over a year and I know some people who are doing some
amazing stuff with it. But never have we felt the need for source
code...the wealth of documentation that is out there in MSDN as well as
Google is more than sufficient .
I'm not sure whether having the source code will be much of a help..for
example , I know that the .NET source code apans several million lines
of code. It is going to take me some time to get up to speed on the code
and it will definitely take some more time for get myself acquainted
with the source code to the extent I can start modifying /adding to it.
Now, let's say I'm a web developer...what am I going to do with the code
behind the memory management routines? I'll be like ..'Cool..so that's
how objects are allocated. Now how do I get images to align right in my
HTML page?". I have a lot of friends in the open source world..but I
would like to ask all of you..how many times have you said "I need that
feature...and I'm going to write it now"..and added a feature to your
favourite OSS software?
As an engineer, I want to get my job done quickly..and I feel it is
sufficient if I know my tools well and my domain of expertise well. And
I feel that I know .NET well...I still haven't come across anybody who
faces problems because of the lack of source code to .NET. If I feel
that I can't get the job done due to the lack of some tool, I'm more
than happy to pay him for his work and I respect his right to keep his
trade secrets..if he choses to keep his knowledge secret , that's his
choice. Just like if I chose to keep my work secret, that's my choice.
I'm not getting confused with the 'Free as in speech, not as in beer'
thing here...what I'm stressing is my right to earn money of my hard
work and to keep that work away from prying eyes if I *chose* to.
One common misconception is that Microsoft is opposed to open-source and
releasing their source code...but the truth is that they're only opposed
to the GPL due to its viral nature(don't flame me...I'm only the
messenger :-) ). In fact, there is quite a lot of Microsoft source code
available (apart from the Windows code leaks ;-) ).
Actually, the source code to .NET is indeed available.If you want the
source code to Rotor (their .NET implementation which runs on several
platforms including FreeBSD, Linux,etc), check out
http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli/ . ;
For the WinCE code, check out
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/Licensing/WindowsCE_Acad
emic.mspx.
What I find useful is the amount of open source apps built on
.NET...which Microsoft openly endorses and encourages(though they don't
use the GPL...they use something called the 'Shared Source License').
Just look at www.gotdotnet.com workspaces...that is a Microsoft funded
site. Or look at the .NET related projects on SourceForge...or look at
stuff like .TEXT, dasBlog,etc,etc.
So with the Microsoft world, you can have your cake and eat it too.:-)
I would like to once again reiterate that I'm not trolling here..if you
want me to stop , just say so.
Regards,
Sriram
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I blog at
http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/sriram
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