On Feb 12, 2010, at 2:37 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > > Hello, > > I wanted to ask the list a question. Has anyone come across an > article or a > discussion regarding objections to the introduction of Open Source > Software in > the industry? > > I was wondering about the GPL license. Let's say a company modifies > EMC2 to > better suit its needs. According to the GPL, the modified version > has to be > GPLed. Is this causing some manufacturers to abandon EMC2 for trade > secret > purposes or other? > > Thanks for sharing your thoughts, experiences, or sources if you > have any. > > Sincerely, > > Patrice
Patrice, GPL is both a power and weakness for business. For one thing it's good to be in GPL because it opens the source and a customer can see what's going on under the hood if he want's to. As you know, GPL allows a customer to request the source (by law) modify it for his needs and seel/give it away. Because of the nature of GPL, not all companies step into the bandwagen of GPL software (lots and lots and lots and don't have problem ). Some just don't like to trade there secrets. if you look at PostgreSQL for example, there are large companies that modified that source and sell it as a commercial product. Often these companies give back code to teh community, and just keep there trade secret... So yes, it can abandon these companies because they want to protect there trade secrets, but do we want them part of this project anwyways? Second, due to teh nature of GPL, it can also attract other companies that wouldn't want to deal with closed source software tools. For a large project like EMC this isn't really a concern. the userbase of EMC is large enough to survive right now. Ries ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOLARIS 10 is the OS for Data Centers - provides features such as DTrace, Predictive Self Healing and Award Winning ZFS. Get Solaris 10 NOW http://p.sf.net/sfu/solaris-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
