Yesterday, while waiting for hours and hours for Windows to update my newly installed copy of Visual Studio (including the .NET Framework, SDK, etc.), I read the M$ licenses and the Sun Java licenses. (NOTE1: The Visual Studio SP 1 update failed to install three times. Typical. NOTE2: It seems the M$ Licensing site only works with IE. Go figure.)
All I can say is Holy Sh** what a PITA the M$ licenses are. There are several very loooooong lists of files you can distribute with your "program". There are certain things you can and can not do, depending upon the version of VS you have and how you intend to use it. The Java licenses on the other hand are very clear. You can distribute your software with a JRE as long as the JRE is not modified pursuant to a separate Java developers agreement (which, in simple terms, states that changes you make must be submitted to Sun). There's no list of stuff you can and can't distribute. No exceptions to the rule depending upon what version of software you're using, etc. The license is about two pages long, as compared to the M$ license which covers many different licenses and other documents. Combine that comparison between licenses with the fact that Java is becoming more and more Open Source all the time and I am inclined to never use Visual Studio for anything - C, C++, C#, .NET, VB, web development - ever. There is also a statement in the license to the effect that distributed software could only be distributed to work on Windows platforms unless it's listed in yet another file. The bottom line is this. If I want to write an application using Visual Studio, and distribute it to customers, I have to read through the VS license, several additional files, the OS license (this means XP, Vista, W2K, W2K3, and Win98 because our customers use, or may use, all of the above) just to make sure I'm not distributing something that M$ says I can't, or I'm not somehow in violation of some part of some license. Fsck that. I still plan to write this application with C# to get a more in-depth look at it. So far, from what I've seen, it looks a lot like Java, so much so the untrained eye may not be able to tell the difference. PGA -- The information contained in this e-mail message is confidential, intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Paul G. Allen Software Engineer BSIT/SE Quake Global, Inc. 858-277-7290 x285 -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
