======================== The Open Source Movement ======================== -IAN! idallen@idallen.ca A few quotes from the industry: ---------------------------------------- E-Week Editorial - Software Independence ---------------------------------------- Would you buy a car with the hood locked shut so that only the car vendor could tune or repair it? [...] Open-source software, although viewed by some as risky and uncertain, does empower users in ways that proprietary software does not. Sure, many needs can be satisfied by good-quality, reasonably priced proprietary software. But the absence of the right to access and change source code and then redistribute those changes is one of those things that some people are willing to fight and make sacrifices for. [...] http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1253972,00.asp ----------------------------------------------- E-Week Column - Answering Open-Source Questions ----------------------------------------------- Considering a Linux option? Get your questions answered: [...] One question that hit my in-box late last week was "How do you get support if anyone can modify the code?" I was tempted to reply, "How do you get support if you can't modify (or even see) the code?" [...] http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,850972,00.asp ------------------------------------------------ Free Can Mean Big Money: The Open Source Economy ------------------------------------------------ What does freedom mean if everything in your life belongs to someone else and you have to pay a license every year to use it? [...] An examination of the facts, put in historical perspective, shows that the engines of global progress have always been fed by the sharing of knowledge. In fact, if knowledge about, say, new agricultural techniques, like irrigation, had been hoarded and protected from competition, it would have set back the rise of civilization by centuries. It was precisely because early pioneers shared their knowledge (willingly or not) that the march of progress led steadily on. [...] http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8054 ------------------------------------ Free Software Leaders Stand Together ------------------------------------ A response to Microsoft's claim that Open Source software is unworkable: [...] With very little funding, the GNU/Linux system has become a significant player in many major markets, from Internet servers to embedded devices. Our GUI desktop projects have astounded the software industry by going from zero to being comparable with or superior to others in only 4 years. Workstation manufacturers like Sun and HP have selected our desktops to replace their own consortium projects, because our work was better. An entire industry has been built around Free Software, and is growing rapidly despite an unfavorable market. The success of software companies like Red Hat, and the benefits to vendors such as Dell and IBM, demonstrate that Free Software is not at all incompatible with business. [...] http://perens.com/Articles/StandTogether.html