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On Sunday 10 October 2004 6:00 pm, Neil Williams wrote:
Bottom line for me is that proprietary software can boost the Linux user base, and make linux an acceptable platform for many.Bottom line is that those who choose to use proprietary software should not expect to get support via the community or expect any proprietary software to work with free software.
Just to clarify that, I have just come back from LinuxWorldExpo (I've got one T-shirt for you Richard but the GNU ones were out of stock, sorry) and the most vocal proponent of free software, FSF, GPL and the potential damage of patents was the guy from Samba. There are inter-operability programs and these deserve full support when they only use free software, what is NOT on is to propose the use of proprietary binaries on a free software system. Migration involves working with proprietary systems by using the full power of free software. Fine, let's make sure migration is smooth, but not at the cost of the survival of the end product! Samba is free software and is intent of staying that way - when he and the rest of the Samba team have put enormous effort into keeping their systems as free software, the idea of using proprietary binaries to make GNU/Linux more appealing quite rightly gets up his nose - and mine. Don't you think Samba would be so much simpler if they signed a non-disclosure agreement with Microsoft? Wouldn't that make migration and inter-operability 100% flawless? If Samba went non-free and forgot all their free source code, would that be a good thing for the users? It gets me really annoyed when blase comments and sweeping statements are made that show complete disrespect for the enormous workload of projects like Samba. They've done it the hard way, as have Ogle. They deserve the absolute and unreserved support of the entire GNU/Linux community for their efforts, not sneaky installation of a proprietary get-out clause. Short sighted convenience could yet strangle Tux and there will only be one place to lay the blame. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.codehelp.co.uk/ http://www.dclug.org.uk/ http://www.isbn.org.uk/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/ http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3
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