Bill Gates welcomed the world to a new breed of "kinder capitalism" at Davos this week. Conveniently forgetting his past, Mr. Gates declared:
"We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well."

"...Today I heard the best single presentation on open-source and free software I have ever personally attended, in a talk by Columbia Professor of Law Eben Moglen, on the topic “Copyleft Capitalism: GPLv3 and the Future of Software Innovation.” He spoke for over 90 minutes. I understand the session was recorded, and I have asked that a transcript be prepared.

"Like an echo from the futuristic sci-fi film Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott) morphed with The Matrix (1999, Andy & Larry Wachowski), the not-too-distant hereafter promises to be a stratified cybersociety; those with the preferential attributes will gain access to the many coveted self-contained metropolises, available only to those with digital savvy and informational instinct. Long gone will be the days of slaving at the job to pay for the credit card that is paying off the Lexus and the mortgage on the 6-bedroom Tudor-style custom house in Palos Verdes. If you are not on the go, you are left behind.

In a speech before the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this week, mega-billionaire Bill Gates is calling for a “creative capitalism” in which businesses build and target products for poorer nations.

One of Silicon Valley's last true characters has signed off - Sun founder Scott McNealy has sent a final goodbye memo to his staff. In his own words McNealy is "a big mouth who is always ready with a clever quip" and his swansong email does not disappoint. He said the last four years (since he left the company) had "not been without serious withdrawal".

A powerful US lobby group is trying to have pro-open source countries listed as being "anti-capitalism". Open source software is anti-capitalism and undermines intellectual property.

A few months back I posted an article reviewing Ubuntu 8.04, “Hardy Heron.” In the comments section, one person brought up a good point: how can I, as a socialist, support Ubuntu? I’ve been meaning to write an article about this since then.

Not only do you not own that copy of Microsoft Word, that video game, or even that MP3 player, but like most people using commercial software (be it pirated or paid for in a shop), you also don't own any other way of accessing your information...

Arda Gerkens, member of the Socialist Party in the Dutch government, wants people to be able to choose their operating system. Now people barely have that freedom and if you want to remove Windows, you can do so, but you loose the money you paid for Windows.