Linux Weekly News for February 22, 2001

Leading items and editorials: Microsoft’s comments on open
source, The declaration of software freedom, Legal issues were also
a big theme at the Peer-to-peer conference, Italian law 248/2000
and free software and Announcing: the new LWN.net desktop page.

“Microsoft’s comments on open source, as expressed by VP Jim
Allchin, came out shortly after the last LWN weekly edition went to
“press.” By now, most readers will likely have seen what he had to
say; those who may have missed the story can check it out on
News.com. Since then, the volume of responses from the free
software community has vastly exceeded the original remarks. One
would think that there was little to add at this point….”

“The declaration of software freedom. The folks at
FreeDevelopers.net aren’t about to accept any grief from any
proprietary software concern. Instead, they have published The
Declaration of Software Freedom, which doesn’t mince its words in
any way….”

“Legal issues were also a big theme at the Peer-to-peer
conference, hosted by O’Reilly last week. Peer-to-peer technology
raises both hopes and concerns, and for the same reasons. When the
Internet first started to take off, it was noted that it enabled
people to converse and exchange with each other, without the need
for intermediaries. Somehow that vision turned into the current
web, which, to the cynical, looks much like an American suburban
street full of big-box stores….”

Complete Story