Hmmmm ... my response: update the GPL and LGPL to forbid the use of the software under the GPL licence from being used on any Microsoft operating system. [MS apparently already uses some GPL'd software in their OS].
-rickw -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [LINK] (FWD) The Microsoft penalty that isn't - Tech News - CNET.com Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 16:01:51 +1000 From: David Chia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://news.com.com/2010-1075-882846.html The Microsoft penalty that isn't By Bruce Perens April 15, 2002, 12:00 PM PT In its antitrust settlement with the Justice Department and nine states, Microsoft promised to publish technology that would allow competing products to interoperate with Windows. But Microsoft has sidestepped the penalty by crafting a technology license that excludes the company's only viable competitor. ... The Microsoft license specifically excludes software under the General Public License, commonly known as the GPL. The GPL is the software license used by Linux and by SAMBA, a popular open-source program that allows non-Microsoft systems to share files and printers with Windows. Microsoft has also banned software under the Lesser General Public License, or LGPL. That license is used by the Mozilla Web browser, the GNOME graphical desktop, and many of the software libraries shipped with Linux. The GPL and LGPL are the most popular licenses used for open-source software, and cover tens of thousands of free programs. A second Microsoft license on extensions used in Windows 2000 and Windows XP will require royalty payments, excluding all software produced by the open-source developer community. Because Microsoft has patented features of the file-sharing protocol, open-source developers who implement the protocol could be sued for infringement. Microsoft is likely to use this same license on future "standards," embedding patented features in the standards and excluding free software like Linux from use of the patents. While patented features in file sharing would handicap Linux from being able to exchange files over an office LAN (local area network), similar future efforts could ban open-source tools like OpenOffice and AbiWord from operating with documents created using Microsoft Office, and Web browsers like Mozilla from viewing Web sites produced with Microsoft software. ... Because Microsoft can make proprietary and patented enhancements to software under the weaker licenses, it can apply its embrace-and-enhance strategy: Microsoft introduces incompatibility into the Microsoft version of the software, and forces the public version of the software out of the market because it won't interoperate with the Windows version. Only a vendor that dominates the market could use such a strategy to maintain its monopoly. The GPL-licensed Linux system is the only one that has been able to make a dent in that monopoly. ----------- For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
