On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 13:28, Rui Miguel Seabra wrote: > Should the BSD IP stack have been GPL'ed source code, would Windows ever > get so fast on the Internet band wagon? It's hypothetical, by I > wonder... I don't know how historically accurate the events described above are (i.e. I have no idea how M$ actually figured out how to spell TCP/IP, but it sure does LOOK like UNIX-ish code was involved)... Generically, Rui's question begs the return question, which was better for users? That M$ had a codebase to start from that was public domain, or for Windows users to be kept off the net until someone told them about WinSock? Having M$ steal BSD's code could be said to have created more problems for the rest of the world than it solved for the users, but it DID give the Windows users the ability to get on the Internet... using a codebase that worked versus M$ beating the 'net to death "testing" their own TCP/IP stack. (My mind boggled at the concept of the possible damage and packet storming THAT would have caused) So, for Windows users it was a benefit that the BSD folks had a codebase out there that M$ could incorporate. The RFC's are public domain right? Why shouldn't there be a public domain TCP/IP core that implements them? If TCP/IP software was GPL, thats fine... M$ would have still had the standard and probably other stacks to work from too... we would have all suffered more from their steeper learning curve then, but it would not have made a lick of difference from the standpoint of slowing them down. -- Exile In Paradise What an artist dies with me! -- Nero
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