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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cfimx who wrote (20569)	10/2/1999 1:44:00 PM
From: JC Jaros	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

This is a pretty complex message, and getting across even the simplest ones is difficult. How shall we tackle it? By realizing that "we" is a pretty broad spectrum that encompasses Slashdot, the Fortune 500, RMS, ESR, GPL, BSD, and even SCSL. The leadership (aside from RMS anyway) understand that Sun's big issue with GPL is 'forking'. That is, there needs to be a mechanism to keep Sun brands from forking away from the interest of the SUNW shareholders. ----- Troll! Twister, why are you even approaching this issue? Dan Gilmore calls your guys in Redmond about this stuff, and the best *they can muster is to basically hang up the phone on him. -JCJ

To: cfimx who wrote (20569)	10/2/1999 3:18:00 PM
From: Michael F. Donadio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Twister, there are many who agree with you that this does not constitute "open source" in the true sense of the word and I gave a reference to show this. In Sunw's defense, however, they believe that this "compromise" helps to prevent fragmentation and have a "controlled innovation". I see this as a pragmatic approach which may or may not succeed. True open source purests will reject SUNW's compromise. They have Linux, but not Windows. I applaud SUNW for trying this. SUNW does not want to loose total control, and realizes that this "community source license" paradigm keeps them in a pivotal position. I feel that this approach is "fair". Others may disagree. What does surprise me, however, is that it is YOU who is raising the issue. You have been a MSFT devotee since you have been on this thread. How can you criticize SUNW while you remain an advocate of one of the chief control freaks of the WORLD -- MSFT. It is like a Stalinist (and please excuse the comparison but it comes to mind) criticizing FDR for his public works programs, while they force hundreds of thousands into forced labor camps and kill dissidents by the millions. Sat Oct 2 00:16:43 EDT 1999 Sun Reiterates Plans To Open Up Solaris SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc. reiterated Friday that it plans to eventually make the source code of its Solaris operating system available to software developers, but its plans are still being defined. ******* Currently, Sun is offering the source code to its Java programming language, its Jini technology, and the microprocessor core of its SPARC processor to developers in a quasi open source model, but developers are required to pay fees to Sun if they use the code in commercial products. Sun calls its open source program a ''community source license,'' which is not accepted by the open source community as completely open source. But Sun is hoping that developers will contribute to its product and expand its user base. The open source community is a group of developers who contribute to Linux, the Apache Web server software and many other open source projects, for free, but now increasingly for pay as many open source companies are starting up after the successful initial public offering of Red Hat Inc. . ''Sun has tried this scam before with Java and Jini and we are not going to buy it,'' said Eric Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative and one of the leaders of open source community. ''They are trying to use us as free labor, without making us a partner. Sun retains all the rights...These terms are therefore unacceptable.'' mysun.sun.com All the best, Michael P.S. Actually thanks for raising the point, it lends to interesting discussion. If we all agreed this would be a very boring thread.