[lug] Linus's response to Mundie

[Scott A. Herod]

You are probably correct that Linus is not the right
person to debate the point that Mundie brought up.  
He does a good job of "remaining above it all" and 
should continue to.

I had not seen Alan's comments yet when I posted this
originally, but having read them, I think that he did
a good job of addressing how OSS benefits business.

The point that I think needs to be made by the Linux
evangelists, is not just that OSS has clear benefits,
but that Mundie's statement that OSS hurts a commercial
business is also wrong.  I almost wish there was a 
canned "How to make money in a GPL'ed world ( with 
real-life examples )" response that could be made 
to FUD such as MS's latest.

Did you see that even CNN picked up Mundie's speech?
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/05/04/microsoft.linux.reut/index.html

Scott

Dhruva Reddy wrote:
> 
> What I took from Mundie's speech is that open source
> is a bad thing, just because for-profit corporations
> cannot benefit from it, and therefore it must be
> squashed like a bug.
> 
> This is what raised my hackles more than anything
> else.  While I agree that this is an issue worth
> addressing, I'm not sure that the responsibility for
> addressing this should rest with Linus.
> 
> I say that if you have an idea, run with it.  If
> you're not interested in doing so, tell someone who
> is.
> 
> Dhruva
> 
> --- "Scott A. Herod" <herod at interact-tv.com> wrote:
> > Unlike most of the slashdotters, I was disappointed
> > with Linus's
> > comments in response Mundie's speach.  While I agree
> > with almost
> > everything that he or ESR said about MS's FUD, I've
> > yet to see
> > someone effectively address the issues that Mundie
> > raises, namely
> > how does a corporation make money for its owners
> > (stockholders)
> > while pursuing an open source software policy.
> > Which stock would
> > you rather your mother have her retirement tied up
> > in, Microsoft's
> > or one of the Linux distro. supplier's?
> >
> > I am not saying that it is not possible to make a
> > business model
> > that succeeds while remaining true to the ideals of
> > OSS, only that
> > I think that the rebuttals to Mundie need to address
> > this issue.
> >
> > Scott