Systems 2001: Panel Discussion GNU/Linux and Free Software

[Jan-Oliver Wagner]

Hi,

I followed the panel, too.
Just some comments on the discussion in my personal view:

It started quite flat with old stories about old times of
GNU/Linux. 

After a while Georg directly mentioned this to get
into a more interesting discussion, which happened :-)

It turned out that Caldera thinks of Linux as a good
development, but that now Companies must make a proprietary(-like)
product out of it to make good revenues.
Well, as you might imagine, Georg made clear that this
is a very naive view of the benefits of the Free Software
approach especially for businesses). Georg was supported by
Daniel, Sebastian and even (when the question was directed
to IBM Germany) by Udo Hertz who underlined that the Freedom
in Free Software is essential for IBM (Germany) and that their
customers started to demand freedom.

This is very good news since the work of FSF and FSF Europe
shows up to have impact not only on people but also on companies.
Georg was really driving the discussion and did an excellent job.
He beat the proprietary guys precisely where it most hurt :-)

Jan

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Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

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