Re: [tlug] [OT] Say _no_ to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

[Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion@example.com>]

On 5 juil. 07, at 08:42, Darren Cook wrote:

> > > There are plenty out there, including a lot of university  
> > > students who
> > > are writing quality code but wasting half the effort by releasing as
> > > GPL.
> >
> > I'm with JC.  Why do you see that as a waste?
>
> Only "half" wasted. It will be useful to people. But, I personally  
> feel
> half the effort is wasted because the software will need to be
> re-invented when someone needs it in a more liberal license, or (more
> likely) for a commercial implementation.

You can reciprocate the argument: commercial software is a waste  
because people who need that code need to re-invent the wheel.

And it is actually what is happening. Free software is actually re- 
implementing a lot of code that is closed (and some code that used to  
be opened but that is closed now too).

So, why would the burden be on the open source communities and not on  
the commercial communities ?

Besides for the personal benefit of the share holders of a commercial  
company, what is the social good created by closing the source ? Does  
closing the source contribute to not having to re-invent wheels on  
the long term ?

And see that on the bigger scale: how much of the actual software  
industry growth is due to free and opened infrastructures ? What were  
the chances, in the 90' of MS succeeding with its closed MSN thing  
when the net was booming ?

Which contributes the most to the development of the Web today ?  
Firefox ? Netscape navigator ?

Wherever you care to look at, the current software based economy is  
booming (if it is) _because_ free solutions exist, _not_ because  
closed solutions do. Closed solutions are just commodifying the code  
to derive financial profit. At the end of this thinking you get what  
they call "net neutrality", or "how to double milk the cow", and  
"DRM", or "how to feed the cow the less possible and still get the  
most milk".

The GPL is pretty honest when it says that it is _not_ free as in  
"free beer", because there is no free ride with the GPL -unless you  
keep the code in your organization, which is fair - there is no free  
ride _but_ there is no commodification of the code.

Jean-Christophe Helary