Bill Gates ridicules the GPL, equals software to medicines, insists on sw. patents

[David B]

So much for the allegued "openness" and "open source
friendliness" of Microsoft: There is no such thing:
They want to open the breach inside the FOSS community
separating tame just-business-friendly patent-friendly
open-source from free(dom) software and marginalise
(and eventually kill) the GPL and the FSF.
He goes as far as downplaying the benefits of open
source software in medical science projects (better
leave it to Gates' charity)
Notice they keep insisting on software patentability
and that no matter if it is open source they want to
make you pay for software (and Novell is helping them
in pursuing this strategy).

Source:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/bill-gates-what.html

Best regards.
David B.(Spain)

    One thing Gates won’t be leaving behind in
retirement is his distaste for open source software.
After one scientist asked if Gates would consider open
source uses in health research, the man who built his
$280 billion company on the power of intellectual
property bristled.

    “There’s free software and then there’s open
source,” he suggested, noting that Microsoft gives
away its software in developing countries. With open
source software, on the other hand, “there is this
thing called the GPL, which we disagree with.”

    Open source, he said, creates a license “so that
nobody can ever improve the software,” he claimed,
bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and
business. (Yes, Linux fans, we’re aware of how
distorted this definition is.) He went back to the
analogy of pharmaceuticals: “I think if you invent
drugs, you should be able to charge for them,” he
said, adding with a shrug: “That may seem radical.” 

it’s very revealing that Microsoft tries to separate
Free software (it tries to characterise it as gratis,
i.e. zero cost, cheap, shoddy) from open source. Open
source is, to Microsoft, mainly about visibility, but
it wants it to be subjected to the same rules,
including software patents. Where are those geniuses
who defended Microsoft’s seemingly-friendly approach
towards the OSI?

http://www.endsoftwarepatents.org
------
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Set yourself free: Use Gnu/Linux and OpenOffice.org:

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