Global collaboration at its best [LWN.net]

Global collaboration at its best

Posted Oct 21, 2004 13:15 UTC (Thu) by guest01 (guest, #25274)
Parent article: Novell waves its patent weapons

*tsk*
*tsk*
*tsk*

So many guarded statements:
"...That is good stuff, and what one would have expected to hear. But..."
"...Whilst this policy is to be welcomed, I think..."
"...I'm more sceptical about the message Novell is trying to bring..."

Companies (like Novell and IBM) stepping forward to shelter this collection of software from litigation from otherwise very rich and powerful corporations are contributing just as much (and I would argue they contribute *more*) than someone contributing a new driver or a fix for some obscure bug.

It's one thing for a bunch of developers to get together and write some of the best, most stable, high performance code that is open and works on multiple environments and architectures. It's an entirely different thing for someone to wager an enormous load of money in the defence of such software against the pounding it would otherwise face in the corporate world of high stakes, high money, and high technology.

You see? This is just the final peg in the puzzle that is open-source. Intelligent developers on the one hand contributing the code, rich companies on the other helping to defend and keep this code "free".

Would a simple "thank you" be just too much to ask?

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