Has Open Source Lost Its Halo? 277
PetManimal writes "Open-source software development once had a reputation as a grassroots movement, but it is increasingly a mainstream IT profit center, and according to Computerworld, some in the industry are asking whether 'open source' has become a cloak used by IT vendors large and small to disguise ruthless and self-serving behavior. Citing an online opinion piece by Gordon Haff, an analyst at Illuminata Inc., the article notes that HP and IBM have not only profited from open-source at the expense of competitors, but have also boosted their images in the open-source community. The Computerworld article also mentions the efforts by the Microsoft/Windows camp to promote open-source credentials: '[InfoWorld columnist Dave] Rosenberg is more disturbed by the bandwagon jumpers: the companies, mostly startups, belatedly going open-source in order to ride a trend, while paying only lip service to the community and its values. Take Aras Corp., a provider of Windows-based product lifecycle management (PLM) software that in January decided to go open-source. Rosenberg depicted the firm in his blog as an opportunistic Johnny-Come-Lately. "I'm not impressed when a company whose software is totally built on Microsoft technologies goes open-source," said Rosenberg, who even suspects that the company is being promoted by Microsoft as a shill to burnish Redmond's image in open-source circles."'"
GPLv3 (Score:5, Informative)
This is a stupid argument (Score:4, Informative)
No, it is not a panacea. Anyone who thinks so will get what they probably deserve. However, it is certainly an improvement over what vendors of, say, closed-source accounting and CRM packages are able to do to their customers.
Of course, there will still be slimy business behavior - that is what capitalism is all about.
Re:OSS gone commercial is still OSS (Score:2, Informative)
Tivo didn't give any implied blessing, Tivo locked down the Series 2 cryptographically to prevent me from copying off the shows I recorded, and making the only conduit the slow and broken TivoToGo. 2 hours to copy a half hour show, I'm glad they take the time to encrypt it on the fly for my protection.
Let me reiterate: Tivo saw hackers doing neat things, based largely on the openness of linux, and locked the system down to prevent it.
The only "hack" I can pull off is 'put in a bigger harddrive with exact same system partition', and that explicitly voids my license. I don't know if they've ever done so, but they could as easily blacklist me off the service for doing this, as MSFT could boot me from XBox live for having a mod chip.
Actually, I heard that the above hack no longer works on Series 3, which include the partition tables in the cryptographic jibber jabber somehow.
I like Tivo as a product, but as a company, they behave as a company, and the fact that they use linux is irrelevant.
Actually, linux is probably the reason it takes 5 minutes for a tivo to reboot.
Re:GPLv3 (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, and they don't. They just say "you cannot use my code for that".
Re:GPLv3 (Score:4, Informative)
So is gcc now going to apply the GPLv3 to its output?
Whether you like GPLv3 or not, Linux isn't changing its license. TiVo has nothing to be concerned about except that maybe they'll be locked out of the HURD.
Re:Ain't nobody ever happy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:OSS gone commercial is still OSS (Score:3, Informative)
They've made modifications anyway. Get them here [tivo.com].
Re:GPLv3 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ain't nobody ever happy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:There was an open source version of Halo? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ain't nobody ever happy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No, no, no (Score:4, Informative)