[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
“Ximian’s efforts to commercialize Linux applications
while still remaining true to the cause of open source seem to have
been well received in the open-source world, but they have been
criticized before. When the company announced a $9.95-per-month
subscription plan last month — ostensibly to facilitate
downloading its wares — the news was greeted with few smiles on
Slashdot, which is usually a good place to gauge the happiness of
Linux lovers.But Bruce Perens, an open-source pioneer who now works as an
adviser to Hewlett Packard on its Linux systems, said that he
didn’t believe the license change was going to upset too many
people.“The thing to make really clear is that both licenses are
accepted as free software and as open source,” he said. “The GPL
says, ‘For the grant of my software, you give me yours, too.’ The
X11 says, ‘It would be nice if you gave me your improvements for my
software, but I really don’t care that much.’ It’s a different way
of looking at things,” Perens said.”