Oracle intersted in buying Ubunutu

[Alexander Jacob Tsykin]

On Wednesday 19 April 2006 08:42, Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
> To me, Linux is Linux.  Being an old hippie, I'm here for the philosophy
> and, "...humanity toward others.".
> If Oracle or any other corporate entity is in, I'm out and danged
> quickly.  /IF/ this happens then, Debian, here I (and others I'm sure)
> come again.
>
> Cybe R. Wizard
Let me start by saying I am NOT in favour of selling Ubuntu, so please don't 
flame me. 

If Linux is to take on Microsoft and win, it will have to have commercial 
backers. End of story. If this means that Oracle, or Novell, or Redhat or any 
other company interested in Linux is to have a say in the direction of the 
Operating System, then so be it.

T illustrate this, consider the fiasco of GPLv3. Linus Torvalds said that the 
Linux kernel will not be under this license, because of its anti-DRM 
provisions. While he doesn't approve of DRM (and neither do I), he 
understands that many companies will not invest in Linux if they cannot use 
DRM, and he is above all a pragmatist. 

For Linux to succeed, we are going to have to make some compromises with 
principle. Linus Torvalds understands this. So does Mark Shuttleworth 
(consider that he has not locked proprietary code out of the distribution, 
far from it, he gave it its own repository, the multiverse). While the 
multiverse is not supported, you can actually activate by pressing a button 
in Synaptic, it is one of the core acknowledged Ubuntu repositories.

Ultimately, we will have to cooperate with commercial ventures, and the only 
question is how much? I am in favour of corporate investment as long as the 
community still has a voice, so why not allow them to buy the forums? As fr 
Ubuntu itself, all the intellectual rights are owned by the Ubuntu 
foundation, and I would be against it selling them.

Sasha