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Google, why notGoogle, why notPosted May 23, 2007 11:41 UTC (Wed) by jeroen (subscriber, #12372)In reply to: Google, why not by man_ls Parent article: A day at the Open Source Business Conference
As far as I know Google actually never released any significant program they wrote as Free Software. Google Earth, Picasa, SketchUp, Google Desktop, etc. It's all proprietary and most of time it only runs on that proprietary OS. Their appliances are probably full of proprietary software too.
Is google a good citizen? If you look at the software they are using themself, they are using the freedom to modify the software and contribute back a lot. But it doesn't seem they want to give that freedom to the users of their software. And IMHO that's a bad thing.
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Google, why not Posted May 23, 2007 17:15 UTC (Wed) by amikins (guest, #451) [Link] For some of that, there's some legal constraints outside their control. For instance, Google Earth makes use of data they don't control, and their own contracts prohibit them from allowing access to that data without prevention to ensure the data doesn't escape.For others, I can't say offhand, but if it's their software in entirety, they have a right to do with it as they like. They're a service company, and that's how they make their money. That they provide so many services at effectively no cost and try to assist with the community at so many other points is, in my opinion, to be commended.
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