Print this page. Recommend
Slashdot it! Delicious Share on Facebook Tweet! Digg

An up-to-date look at free software and its makers

PROJECTS ON THE MOVE

Author(s): CARSTEN SCHNOBER

The recent discussion concerning the future of Mozilla Thunderbird is one example of the needs of a corporation vs. those of the user community.

The relationship between the open source community and software vendors has always been tricky. Uncompromising supporters of free software avoid using proprietary software – especially on the operating-system front – and many community members view market leader Microsoft as an evil-doer. In contrast to this, the most widespread ree system, Linux, offers a safe haven for open source advocates. One should avoid this kind of oversimplified
view of application software vendors. Some classical software manufacturers produce and sell proprietary-only applications, and their standing with the open source community is generally not much better than Microsoft’s. These vendors can only expect more community acceptance if they develop products for free operating systems.


Read full article as PDF »


Comments


Print this page. Recommend
Slashdot it! Delicious Share on Facebook Tweet! Digg
Related Articles
EXTENSIBLE Practical add-ons for Thunderbird
WHO’S AFRAID OF ODT? Open Document Format in practice
ASK KLAUS!
CUSTOM MADE Word processing with DokuWiki
SURF’S UP Finding and installing Firefox extensions
INTRODUCTION TO WRITER The power of word processing
Live Streaming from ApacheCon Europe 2009

All about Apache in 19 talks

Watch 3 days full of Apache talks live from Amsterdam on March 25-27 in the convenience of your home or office. Topics are: Apache Hadoop, Tomcat for Developers and Administrators, HTTP Server Administration and much more.

Find out more

 

In the US and Canada, Linux Magazine is known as Linux Pro Magazine.
Entire contents © 2009 [Linux New Media USA, LLC]
Linux New Media web sites:
North America: [Linux Pro Magazine]
UK/Worldwide: [Linux Magazine]
Germany: [Linux-Magazin] [LinuxUser] [EasyLinux] [Linux-Community] [Linux Technical Review]
Eastern Europe: [Linux Magazine Poland] [Linux Community Poland] [Open Source DVD Poland]
International: [Linux Magazine Brazil] [EasyLinux Brazil] [Linux Magazine Spanish]
Corporate: [Linux New Media AG]