Nokia Makes Donation to GNOME Foundation

Posted May 31, 2005 20:33 UTC (Tue) by vblum (subscriber, #1151) [Link]

I understand the patents issue, but these might be different camps within Nokia, no? It might be a good idea to welcome those people within Nokia that want to work with the F/OSS community, hoping that they can win over the other camp. I sincerely doubt that anyone putting in the effort to base a product like this on open technologies would be an evil patentmonger.

Posted May 31, 2005 20:57 UTC (Tue) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link]

I pray you don't find out how wrong you are to assume they couldn't be doing much worse. The whole SCO thing is nothing in comparison to what could happen if several large companies tried to play the patent card against Linux. I'm not saying they would win, but it would be ugly, prolonged and counter-productive in the extreme for all sides I suspect.

Posted May 31, 2005 20:42 UTC (Tue) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

Now, now, let's not overreact. From the press release it is clear that Nokia used GNOME as the GUI for their 770 device - so they felt a moral obligation to contribute some funds to the foundation. I wouldn't read too much into it, except that it is a generous thing to do. And, that it enhances GNOME's profile in the mainstream IT world.

This whole thing can be beneficial to FOSS. A major consumer electronics manufacturer uses a FOSS platform to deliver a high volume product. I'm not naive to expect Nokia will "change their mind" about patents in the near future, but it may be a good indication to them that money can be made _without_ holding a monopoly on algorithms. Don't expect large multinationals to simply throw away what they've been trying to build for years. They aren't stupid and they sure aren't as flexible in that respect as some smaller companies.

Also, don't underestimate the power of IBM. Their licensing of patents to FOSS _only_ is the right thing to do in the system where it seems unlikely that software patents will be abolished. In essence, they have created a patent free FOSS island where everyone can play fair. It doesn't apply to proprietary software world at all. Nokia and Sun are taking baby steps, but who knows, maybe they'll see in the future what IBM (being involved in FOSS longer) realised now.

Posted May 31, 2005 20:47 UTC (Tue) by Felix.Braun (subscriber, #3032) [Link]

I honestly don't see how accepting monetary contributions from NOKIA would put the GNOME Foundation under any obligation to weaken its stance on software patents. In the same vein NOKIA obviously see no obligation to change their opinion on software patents just because they happen to profit from free software for the development of one of their devices.