[Ubuntu-PH] Microsoft's Patent against FOSS

[Dean Michael Berris]

On 5/17/07, Jopes <jofellxcite at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry. I just don't get this. I don't think we're a technical-only group.
> Besides, someone asked about patents, and we should help him or we will end
> up letting him be in the dark (and buy Vista) because nobody wants to
> respond to him.
>

What's wrong with buying Vista if you can afford it?

If you really want to learn about patents, you go to:

http://www.uspto.gov/
http://www.google.com/patents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent

As to what the MS Patent issue brings, you hop on over to digg.com or
slashdot.org and take part in the debate/discussion/whatnot there.

Discussing patents in an Ubuntu mailing list just feels wrong.
Speculating on patents when you're not a lawyer is just... Oh I don't
know... Wrong?

> As for contributing to open source projects, I've learned back in college
> that with the current competition in the software, code and bug reports is
> not enough to ensure the success of FOSS. We have to counter FUDs like the
> one we saw this weekend. This is yet the biggest we've seen in the entire
> FOSS history and we can't afford to just let it pass by without a fight.
>

So it's FUD, do we need to bite?

I never thought FOSS was about competition in software... I always
thought FOSS was about writing software which you let others use.
Didn't come across as competition to me.

> And surely, FOSS people should know that FOSS isn't only software (or
> technical stuff), it's also political, social, and ethical stuff (reason we
> have the GPL).
>

FOSS is software whether you like it or not. Without software that is
free and open source, how do you call it Free/Open Source Software?

And IMO, the GPL is broken. The Free Software Movement is the social
commentary of Richard Stallman. The Open Source Movement is about open
source software. Depending on your religion about it, it all boils
down to software.

Whether you like it or not, software is at the heart of The Free
Software Movement and the Open Source Movement.

So can we go back to writing FOSS and stop with this political nonesense?

Thank you.

-- 
Dean Michael C. Berris
http://cplusplus-soup.blogspot.com/
mikhailberis AT gmail DOT com
+63 928 7291459