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Bradley M. Kuhn's essay compares complex financial instruments, real estate, poker playing and proprietary licensing and their pros and cons to the society.
Okay so I think we can all agree that proprietary software shouldn't be promoted by the FOSS community. It also seems to be acceptable to promote the use of free software applications on proprietary OSes. So why is there a problem with promoting the use of proprietary applications on free OSes?
Some successful open-source companies are using a dual-licensing scheme. In short, software is released both through an open source version (e.g. licensed under the GNU GPL) and through a proprietary license usually reserved to paying customers.
As much as I may say the open-source and proprietary software worlds are converging, in terms of business models, Red Hat continues to resist and to stand largely alone in its resolution to deliver value unmitigated by proprietary licensing.
A group of individuals, comprising mostly software engineers and others, who oppose the use of proprietary software, got together for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and give a human face to what has largely been a protest in blogs and on websites.News report on Candle light vigil for Document freedom.
Tim believes that open source, at least as defined by open-source licensing, has a short shelf life that will be consumed by Web 2.0 (i.e., Web companies hijacking open-source software to deliver proprietary Web services) or by traditional proprietary software vendors.
I care about the licensing of the software I use, not because of some philosophical principle, but because I got sick and tired of having the thumbscrews put on me by proprietary software companies.
Every once in awhile I come across a story that seems too incredible to be true. This week, I heard the exact same story, from two different enterprises, about the same proprietary vendor. Unfortunately, I had to live the story, which I found unpleasant.
If you don't believe that the proprietary software model is inherently bad for customers, read on.
