Open Source, Free Software, and Public Domain

[Exile In Paradise]

On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 13:28, Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
> Should the BSD IP stack have been GPL'ed source code, would Windows ever
> get so fast on the Internet band wagon? It's hypothetical, by I
> wonder...

I don't know how historically accurate the events described above are
(i.e. I have no idea how M$ actually figured out how to spell TCP/IP,
but it sure does LOOK like UNIX-ish code was involved)...

Generically, Rui's question begs the return question, which was better
for users? That M$ had a codebase to start from that was public domain,
or for Windows users to be kept off the net until someone told them
about WinSock?

Having M$ steal BSD's code  could be said to have created more problems
for the rest of the world than it solved for the users, but it DID give
the Windows users the ability to get on the Internet... using a codebase
that worked versus M$ beating the 'net to death "testing" their
own TCP/IP stack. (My mind boggled at the concept of the possible damage
and packet storming THAT would have caused)

So, for Windows users it was a benefit that the BSD folks had a codebase
out there that M$ could incorporate.

The RFC's are public domain right?
Why shouldn't there be a public domain TCP/IP core that implements them?

If TCP/IP software was GPL, thats fine... M$ would have still had the
standard and probably other stacks to work from too... we would have all
suffered more from their steeper learning curve then, but it would not
have made a lick of difference from the standpoint of slowing them down.

-- 
Exile In Paradise
What an artist dies with me!
		-- Nero
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