Open Source Kickstarter Report Card (Updated)

[Richard Gaskin]

Peter W A Wood wrote:
 > I believe that the statement “ it must not cause any non-FOSS
 > Microsoft software to become subject to the terms of any FOSS
 > license.” would specifically exclude the use of GPL licensed software
 > - 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011//08/open_source_windows_8_windows_store/>

The Register is normally a very good source for tech stuff, but the 
author tips his hand as being a bit interpretive, first noting that 
Microsoft themselves wrote:

    'FOSS' means any software licensed under an Open Source Initiative
    Approved License.”

..but then editorializing this assumption:

    The invitation does not extend to GPL.

    Microsoft’s agreement continues:

    “If your app includes FOSS, it must not cause any non-FOSS Microsoft
     software to become subject to the terms of any FOSS license.”
    Although Microsoft didn't name it, it's talking about GPL.

But is it?  GPL v2 and v3 are both on the OSI list of "approved" 
licenses (whatever that means; OSI is a much younger org than FSF, and 
while I appreciate their work and tend toward their politics more than 
the FSF's, naming their list "Approved" complicates things 
unnecessarily, and IMNSHO smacks of simple granstanding).

More to the point, if this author's interpretation is correct, and 
everything Microsoft has been doing to further embrace open source in 
the years since is somehow wrong, then applying that equally it means 
that no one could distribute any GPL-governed software on any platform 
but Linux.

That would be a rare view.  Rare enough that I've not seen anyone else 
suggest it.

Then again, with open source growing as it is and the GPL licenses 
comprising a majority of those, that would be one more reason for more 
major orgs to switch to Linux. :)

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com