"...Now we haven't attacked the GPL other than to say
it was never intended to be a business model. We will continue to
use the GPL where it is good to use. That is, if you want to create
ubiquitous standards and infrastructure components, by all means,
use the GPL. We will not violate that, and have not. What we're
saying is that we are creating solutions, not just the bits and
bytes of open source. We're doing the integration, we're testing
the certification, to create product solutions targeted at our
market. So what we have, if you look at our license, is an overlay,
but any of the bits and bytes that are GPL'd, those are freely
available and you can download those. We aren't going to put our
system images out there and take all the work that we're investing
in -- and that's our work -- the integration and testing and the
layers above Linux. We are not going to give that free. But we
won't violate the GPL -- all those system bytes are available from
the internet.
So some of it is, again, a misperception of what we are all
about -- a lot of misquotes and a lot of people trying to
sensationalize what is in reality, I think, the only viable
business model going forward. That is, give back to the GPL and the
underlying layers and assure that's freely available. You don't
have to do all your work and give it away free. Then you develop
layers above that which are licensed differently -- that do not
necessarily require everything should be given away free.
I think Caldera is trying to take the lead, and when you take
the lead you take shots. I was just at the O'Reilly Open Source
Conference an Conference and we had a panel, and I would say 85
percent of the people in that audience were in concurrence with
this concept that we purported. That is, make sure you have open
source -- give that back -- don't violate that -- but go ahead and
develop layers above that provide value and they don't necessarily
have to be "GPL'd," but you can provide open access, which is
something we talked about last year when we made this announcement.
"
