Re: [Fsfe-uk] BECTA discriminate against FLOSS?

[Mark Preston]

Hi all,
It may well be that VB programmers produce a lot of free, as in unlicensed,
public domain type software, but whether it can be described as 
completely free code is debatable.

OSS projects generally prefer Linux or BSD because it has been 
observed in practice (*eg Welsh **PHLS*, reported at NHS session *OSHCA* 2001, 
London)
http://www.*oshca*.org/docs/Open_Source-Henry_Ray.pdf 
<http://www.oshca.org/docs/Open_Source-Henry_Ray.pdf>
 that the efforts of disentangling proprietary licensing of components 
supplied as part of Windows programming languages is large and may form 
more of the work than writing the software. This has been called a 
problem of "defenestration".
With a GPL OS this is not an issue. I am involved in a project that uses a remastered 
Knoppix CD and relies entirely on FLOSS based software.
Sometimes it is not so obvious how free/open source solutions differ from
closed-source software, but it is crystal-clear that a product such as this
would not have been possible if we relied on close-source
alternatives. Can you imagine negotiating a licence from Microsoft to
remaster a bootable Windows-based CD?
Regards,
Mark Preston


Chris Croughton wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 10:53:54PM +0000, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:
>
>  
>
> > On Sat, 2004-01-03 at 22:22, Chris Croughton wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > OK, in that way.  But I don't sell MS software (OK, I did buy it in the
> > > case of Visual Basic, but that's because it is /the/ best GUI
> > > development package in my opinion for what I want, no FLOSS equivalent
> > > comes near it).
> > >      
> > Hmm, I hear VB is central to a plot to deny people's freedoms. Very much
> > against any spirit of freedom, right?
> >    
>
> The aliens told you about that plot, did they?  Better put the tinfoil
> hat back on...
>
> FWIW, I've found that the VB development community is just as friendly
> as the Linux one, except without the perpetual chip-on-the-shoulder
> about ideology.  Most of the VB programmers I've found write and publish
> completely free code, not GPL pseudo-free.
>
> Chris C
>
>
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