appropos recent discussion of perl, this may be of interest to those
who produce web-based sound/imagery as well as bill gates fans
m.
--
Microsoft outlaws Perl
CNET Web Building Newsletter
July 5, 2001, Vol. 7, No. 1
Imagine spending months building a large Web application, then
getting served a subpoena because the license for one of the
components doesn't let it be installed with other parts of the
application. That would happen if you used Perl or most other open
source software in a Web application with Microsoft's Mobile Internet
Toolkit. In its license for the Mobile Internet Toolkit, Microsoft
forbids developers to use open source software in conjunction with
Toolkit.
Of course, not too many developers will run up against this issue.
Toolkit is used for building wireless Internet applications on the
.Net platform, and if you're a .Net user, you're probably 99 percent
Microsoft anyway. If you do have Perl or other open source components
in your architecture, you can probably find an alternative to Toolkit
for your wireless application needs. But there's no reason for
Microsoft to single out this particular bit of software, except as a
starting point for extending this license provision to its other
products. If this language were added to the Windows 2000 license,
ActiveState would lose a big part of its market, and many more
developers would be affected because of legacy systems.
The solution is just not to use products that have this license
provision. Microsoft may think it's protecting market share, but it's
really shooting itself in the foot. Moves like this license and the
idea of making subscription-based software are sure to drive people
away from Microsoft products. Microsoft rightly recognizes that it
has real competition but is taking the wrong approach in its
competitive practices. It could attempt to build better products
instead of forcing what it has on people.
Do you have an opinion? Let us know in the Builder Buzz:
http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eCGE0BFPVV0h0tlz0Aq
"Hurricane" Wayne Cunningham
Senior editor
CNET Builder.com
URLs:
Microsoft attacks open source
http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eCGE0BFPVV0h0tl10Ad
>From ZDNet Interactive Week
Microsoft shelves Office XP subscription plan
http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eCGE0BFPVV0h0tl20Ae
>From News.com
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