[PLUG] Creative writing

Michael C. Robinson michael at goose.robinson-west.com
Wed Aug 13 22:21:02 UTC 2003


How do you make Windows open enough so that Microsoft can't tie
important standards to it's pathetic OS?  Can you convince enough
people to go with something else and stay financially afloat
providing that ( preferably under GPL )?  The problem with the 
idea of Microsoft opening its code to someone is that it
will open it to very few people and charge blood.  The European 
Union is at least showing some backbone threatening to not allow the
sale of Windows without fair access to it's underpinnings.  I don't
care much for the EU on most moral issues, but at least it appears
to be attempting to do the right thing with regard to Microsoft 
Windows.  I thought the creed of ethical business didn't contain
the premise that you do whatever makes the most money for you
regardless of any other factors.  It isn't businesses responsibility
always to forego certain profit earning avenues but society as
a whole I'd say is responsible for limiting certain practices
which has commonly been done through a governmental body.

As far as the DMCA comment, I worry that there are weak ideas of what
open is insofar as what is needed.  There can be plenty of business in
an open source environment.  Most people probably don't want to
be programmers and even programmers have to spend time to do 
something with open source that hasn't been done by someone 
else no matter how good they are.  I see nothing wrong with
using Linux as a proprietary software platform for proprietary
applications.  There are a lot of people who say I think Linux
can run better than Windows but can I get this or that application.
One answer is to get enough access to that application to port it.
Another answer is to copy it's functionality through writing new 
or creatively using existing open source software.  A third answer 
is to write a proprietary application that runs under Linux and
competes.  

For Weatherbug for example, how do you get the same 
weather data if you want to create a similar program to run under 
Linux?  Why couldn't you sell a Weathertux clone for Linux if you
knew how to access the same weather data?  Worst come to worse
you have to start a company that has it's own weather stations
near where Weatherbug's stations are and feed that to clients
using Weathertux.

If your goal is to release all software you produce under GPL but
you want to compete with Weatherbug and other hot titles how can
you modify the profit model reasonably, or will you sell plenty of
copies of your software even though the source code comes with it?
One game plan I've considered is to scramble the source for a limited
time so that you can compile the program which solves a lot of
compatibility issues, but your ability to read it before it say
goes under GPL is next to zero.  Brilliant people will descramble
it of course but you could license it so that the decryption key
will be released on a certain date and gurantee that it will go
under the GPL.  How long should it be under encryption?  Is there
a better way where it can be released unscrambled under GPL from
the get go?

     --  Michael Robinson




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