:Kurt Granroth and Andreas Pour: "Business Ethics" in the Open Source Community?
Kurt Granroth and Andreas Pour: "Business Ethics" in the Open Source Community? Feb 12, 2001, 21 :26 UTC (106 Talkback[s]) (10609 reads) (Other stories by Kurt Granroth and Andreas Pour)
"What do we do when "one of our own" turns their back on our community's code of ethics?"
"A few "get rich quick" companies hoping to capitalize on "the Linux craze" have tried to apply the old tactics to this
community.. but for the most part, they have had little effect. We tend to watch out for these companies and let them know
that they aren't welcome in our community if they can't play by our rules. This is usually pretty effective."
"But what do we do when one of our own, a company with long-time roots in our community, rejects our code of ethics and
resorts to underhanded, deceitful tactics for the express purpose of undermining an Open Source project? I never expected
this to happen. Much to my dismay, it appears that the now flush-with-cash IGS/Helix Code/Ximian company is doing just
that...."
"Go to the popular Google search engine and try a search on any of the following terms: "KDE", "K Desktop
Environment", "koffice", "kword", "kspread", "konqueror", "dcop", "kparts", "qt" or "trolltech". Now look at the
"Sponsored Link" on the right side of the page. You will find the ad shown below, loudly proclaiming "Free Linux
Desktop" and advertising "Download it now!". The link goes to -- not KDE, but Ximian. Huh?..."
"The intent of these ads are clear: they are deliberately attempting to confuse people looking for free KDE code into
buying Ximian products instead. Think I'm reading too much into this? Well, look again at the ad above and then look at
the ad below. This is what Google produces when one searches for "ximian", "gnome", or "evolution"."
