I don’t know all of the proposal, as I have not read all the documents. From the input I’ve gotten, it would protect MS from suing, but would necessarily limit the operation of copyrighted works with open source.
I see that as worse.
I am surprised how eloquent a speaker the president of Linspire is on this whole problem. He makes his opinions clearly known, which is what I respect. Mark Shuttleworth, may put his money where his mouth is, by funding Canonical, but otherwise seems very quiet. He also seems to be in a better place to be a speaker, since he is further from the effects of the MS sphere of influence.

Oh, also, it is hard not to see Ballmer as Darth Vader, to Gates, Emperor Palpatine.

I think the GPL3 it will very effectively protect the open source community from it’s enemies. From the beginning, I think, the open source movement (FSF and Gnu) has adopted a very cautious and long-term approach to its operations which has taken the form of a very shrewdly and strategically worded licence, the GPL. In fact, isn’t the GPL really what defines the open source movement? Despite all of Microsoft’s money and influence, it can’t win this battle. Richard Stallman and the FSF are better at writing crafty licences than Microsoft is.

However, I don’t think Microsoft is going to stop trying. I don’t want to be one of those Microsoft bashers, but I sense the attitude towards open source at Microsoft has changed, and now the gloves are coming off. They’re going to become as desperate and dirty as any other commercial monopoly in its last days. Lately Microsoft has really been behaving like the evil entity that Linux fanatics say it is.

Gates as Palpatine… that’s a good one. But it really is like the battle in Star Wars: it’s all or nothing.

Hi Tim,
That is what I believe as well. MS is going for the jugglar. Soon, very, very, soon.
Ron

The GPL 3 may not stop Microsoft, but I can see how it can make life more difficult for them.

I see Microsoft’s ridiculous patent claims as a way to use its money to divide the FOSS community. Microsoft need not be totally successful in doing this, just incrementally so. They have a lot of dirty tricks up their sleeve and this is just one of them.

GPL 3 is one way of fighting back. There are other ways too. One is to encourage other to use FOSS alternatives to Microsoft’s overpriced, insecure, and buggy software.

Hello Maddog,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us and for your comments
Ron