Another fallacy is Gates wishes folks would confuse the GPL with Open Source instead of Free Software. Even if the source were open, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have the freedoms the GPL would give you. Remember that Freedom is more important, hence simply showing the code doesn’t give other developers the ability to build upon that code Freely.

I personally would like ‘FOSS’ to become the proper moniker so folks cannot separate the two anymore, but not everyone buys into RMS’s extreme views … especially Gates and Company!

Having said all of that to hopefully untwist Gate’s spider web, folks have to be careful not to get confused with some of the stuff he spews. That quote was built in order to plant some seeds of confusion since what he said really doesn’t jive with the truth of the matter.

he and novell have cosied up and hope to make a killing in china. the more he can trash open source, the better chance he and his cohorts have of closing much of it.

people need to beware this alliance and the implications it has for compromising open source and the gpl.

microsoft has to be desperately looking for a replacement their tired old ‘operating system’ and open source offers a route to a lucrative revenue stream.

Microsoft’s long reign has tainted their vision and those closely associated with them to the poin where others see black, they see white. We see freedom, they see anti-competitive practices. In the world of Microsoft, nobody matters but them.