| CodePlex follows the same practice. Its stated goal is to convince "commercial software companies" to contribute more to "open source". Since nearly all open source programs are also free software, these programs will probably be free, but the "open source" philosophy doesn't teach developers to defend their freedom. If they don't understand the importance of this freedom, developers may succumb to Microsoft's ploys encouraging them to use weaker licenses that are vulnerable to "embrace and extend" or patent co-optation, and to make free software dependent on proprietary platforms. |
| This confusion is a serious problem because it falsely claims free software business to be impossible. Many software companies already contribute to free software, and these commercial contributions are quite useful. Perhaps Microsoft would like people to assume these facts are impossible. Based on these facts, we can see that CodePlex will encourage developers not to think about freedom. It will subtly spread the idea that free software business is impossible without the support of a proprietary software company like Microsoft. However, it may convince some proprietary software companies to release additional free software. Will that be a contribution to computer users' freedom? |
| Sam Ramji, now president of CodePlex, said a few months ago that Microsoft (then his employer) wanted to promote development of free applications that encourage use of Microsoft Windows (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3811941). Perhaps the aim of CodePlex is to suborn free software application developers into making Windows their main platform. Many of the projects hosted now on codeplex.com are add-ons for proprietary software. These programs are caught in a trap similar to the former Java Trap (see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html). |
| That would be harmful if it succeeds, because a program that doesn't run (or doesn't run well) in the Free World does not contribute to our freedom. A non-free program takes away its users' freedom. To avoid being harmed in that way, we need to reject proprietary system platforms as well as proprietary applications. CodePlex free add-ons to a proprietary base increase society's dependence on that base -- the opposite of what we need. |
| If the CodePlex Foundation wishes to be a real contributor to the free software community, it must not aim at free add-ons to non-free packages. It needs to encourage development of portable software capable of running on free platforms based on GNU/Linux and other free operating systems. If it tries to seduce us into going in the opposite direction, we must make sure to refuse. |
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[火星人 ] Stallman分析微軟Codeplex意圖及對自由軟體的影響已經有982次圍觀
