osOpinion: Open Source: It’s Nearly Time

[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]

“Open source is still waiting in the wings. It is huge now, and
Linux is one of the most prevalent operating systems in use, short
of the monolith Windows 200x. It is growing, too. Fast. Really,
really fast.”

“Why? Not because it’s free, although let’s face it, that’s a
huge advantage these days. Not because it’s readily available
through the Internet. No, it’s down to licenses again.”

“The GPL (general public license) protects not the programmers
right to “own” the source code and any alterations to it. Neither
does it restrict the use of its code, or reserve the right for the
owner to accept and refuse changes to be made. In fact, it does
just the opposite of these things, while still retaining some
degree of ownership with the original programmer.”

“The difference between the commercial and open source worlds is
simple. It all comes down to ethics.”

Complete
Story