Win32 Client port was: Re: [Box Backup] traffic statistics

[Martin Ebourne]

On Fri, 2004-10-22 at 22:30, Rick Price wrote:
> I don't represent a commercial backup interest, but why are you worried
> about a commerical venture using it?
> 
> The larger the market, the better for software, because it will attract
> more users and third party plugins.
> 
> The BSD license gives users more options, which really, is what it should
> be about.

I couldn't disagree more on that point. It gives companies the right to
take away the users' options leaving them with one of those fine EULAs
instead of their free software.

I think one thing Linux has proven is that you get a BIGGER market share
by guaranteeing freedom for everyone than by giving more freedom to
fewer people. The BSDs have been around for longer, but there's no doubt
Linux has the market share and I'm fairly sure its largely down to that
one point.

WINE is an example of it all going wrong due to the licence. They were
an X style license I think, now they're LGPL/GPL thanks to
Transgaming/Cedega ripping them off.

Linksys routers for which you can download many different firmwares and
hack to your hearts content are an example of GPL working for the good
of all, with the Linux kernel in this case.

We all know that Microsoft based its tcp/ip stack on BSD code. Fat lot
of good that did the BSD people...

Personally any project I started would always be under a licence which
guarantees the software will be free. The GPL is the most obvious
example of this kind of license.

> Anyway, that's my opinion.

Each to their own. The above is my opinion, that's all. ;)

Cheers,

Martin.