[Mono-list] Dot_GNU PR Folks on Slashdot

[Joe Mozelesky]

Weiqi Gao wrote:

>I would start to worry if the free version of the project show signs of
>abandonment.  But then again, a truly useful and intrinsically
>sustainable open source project will live on even after the original
>contributers leave the project.
>
>Ximian licensing their portion of the Mono code with a different
license
>doesn't worry me a bit.

I don't think the licensing part is really an issue, I think the issue
is that Ximian cannot dictate a non-compete arrangement to a
non-employee who is an open source contributor.  They do not 'own' the
entire project in its entirety.  They have no right to tell a
contributor they cannot be involved because they contribute to another
project.

This is one reason why I have stuck to just lurking and observing, and
have not yet made up my mind what project I want to contribute to.

...just my 2 cents.


-----Original Message-----
From: mono-list-admin@ximian.com [mailto:mono-list-admin@ximian.com] On
Behalf Of Weiqi Gao
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 10:37 AM
To: mono-list@ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-list] Dot_GNU PR Folks on Slashdot

On Sun, 2002-11-24 at 04:14, Zaphod wrote:
> 
> I don't know ... I just read the FAQ ... and found this curious .. it
is 
> not often that I see an OSS project say this explicitly in their FAQ
...

Two projects I can think of that have this arrangement are Cygwin and
Ghostscript.  Both are stellar Open Source projects.

The existence of an alternative closed source licensing arrangements is
not a problem as long as the open source version is active and up to
date.

> There are some projects that had people to think it was free and then
later
> pushed a non-free release (Sourceforge ?) .. So I appreciate mono
being 
> honest with their contributers .... 

I would start to worry if the free version of the project show signs of
abandonment.  But then again, a truly useful and intrinsically
sustainable open source project will live on even after the original
contributers leave the project.

Ximian licensing their portion of the Mono code with a different license
doesn't worry me a bit.

-- 
Weiqi Gao
weiqigao@networkusa.net


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