[olug] U.K. Urged to hold back on open source

[Sam Tetherow]

I think it would depend on the what the corporation does, if its not a 
software firm I don't see what the issue would be and if it is a 
software firm you would just need to evaluate the impact of using GPL 
software there, for instance, when would it not be a good thing to use 
gcc or perl in a business?

As for government, I would strongly encourage government funded 
programming to be done using GPL software as well as suggesting that the 
code be released under the GPL where appropriate, it is my tax dollars 
hard at work so I think I should get the maximum benifit out of it (ie 
the source code).

William E. Kempf wrote:
> http://msn.com.com/2100-1104_2-1019064.html?part=msn&subj=cdf&tag=mymsn
> 
> Probably not a popular opinion on this list, but I agree that the GPL
> should be avoided by governments (or corporations, for that matter).  I
> participate in several "open source" endeavors, but very much dislike the
> GPL.  Just another opinion in the long standing debate of "BSD vs. GPL"
> licensing (though I'm not promoting the BSD license itself, only licenses
> that similarly don't force derivatives to be open source).
> 
> What I find interesting in this article is that IBM backs Intellect, who
> made this statement, despite IBM also backing Linux.
> 


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam Tetherow                           tetherow at nicusa.com
Director of Development
NIC Labs (PSSG)                        http://www.nicusa.com