Matthew Miller wrote:
On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 07:38:01AM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
And unfortunately, even though I suspect that many people would very
much like a legal distribution based on Linux that could include all the
parts necessary to be a viable competitor to Microsoft, the GPL will
always prevent it from happening.
That's a funny place to put the blame.
Sometimes the truth is funny... By design, there is no legal way to
distribute a combination of GPL'd code and anything with different
restrictions. So, whatever number of software patents exist, plus the
number of things where the code with a non-GPL copyright is the best
version - that is the number of things that Microsoft can include by
making suitable licensing arrangements, and doing so is what keeps them
in business. The only way a product that includes GPL'd code can
contain any of those things is if someone buys the right to allow
unlimited free redistribution and there is no practical way for many
users to share the cost of that.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
