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Stallman: Love is not free
News Companies like Caldera and IBM, on the other hand, argue that it's possible to find a middle ground where proprietary software can work with GPL-based "free" software. Linux is moving slowly but surely into the mainstream, taking over significant...
[July 10, 2001, 13:17]
The unpopular view
Talkback This would apply to both proprietary and open source software. The proprietary software industry has been getting away with pulling in money for old rope for years. If you acquire a software package for free, your recourse is limited to the amount...
[May 11, 2009, 17:41]
Linspire launches free Linux distribution
News Freespire provides a free marketplace for any and all Linux software, including proprietary, open source, free and commercial products," said Linspire's chief executive, Kevin Carmony. Freespire also includes proprietary third-party software in...
[August 10, 2006, 12:50]
Linux gives voluntary sector a boost
News In Bulgaria there is a fully established open-source project which has helped 30 Bulgarian NGOs, with a total of around 110 computers, to migrate from proprietary to open-source software. It would like to set up a similar project in the UK to help...
[September 15, 2004, 16:20]
Life after Microsoft - One firm's complete conversion to open source
News But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software -- and still lived to tell the tale. Ball's IT crew settled on a potpourri of open...
[August 22, 2003, 15:00]
Industry group hones patent standards
News For years, IETF snubbed proprietary software, but now it's making a transition to allowing it in certain cases. Earlier this year, another standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium, revised its policy to allow the use of patented software in...
[August 5, 2002, 11:09]
Open standards push Mannheim to Linux
News We migrated from Microsoft Exchange Server 2005 to Oracle Collaboration Suite because it [OCS] supports open standards - it is proprietary software but it uses standard protocols," says Armbruster, talking to ZDNet UK about his plans.
[November 29, 2005, 17:15]
Novell calls a halt to Hula
News At the time, company executives said the Hula project exemplified the company's dual approach to software development, melding both open-source and proprietary software. Novell has taken its employees off the Hula open-source email and calendaring...
[November 30, 2006, 9:00]
Open source could save NHS
News Once a customer is 'locked into' proprietary software, its makers can demand premium prices, safe in the knowledge that the client would find it even more expensive to change. But there are always two sides to every story and Mary Jo Foley points...
[October 30, 2000, 13:31]
Oracle wants to sell proprietary appliances? Fat chance...
Blog Proprietary software. They all work the same, use the same chips, and run the same software. Now look at what Sun's selling: mainly proprietary hardware, though admittedly with more of a nod towards standard hardware than before.
[May 11, 2009, 15:49]
Debunking Some Linux Myths
Blog Comment Once that happens, that is once small businesses, schools, students.are not forced to use proprietary software just to keep working or studying, but can freely use FOSS for those activities if they so wish, then there is no reason for anybody to...
[October 27, 2009, 9:58]
FSF recommends express patent licences
News While most concerns about using free and open-source software in the post-SCO era have orbited around the notion of inadvertent patent infringement, yesterday solicitors raised concerns that open source licensors might grant rights to infringe on...
[November 5, 2004, 10:08]
Sun to drop free StarOffice downloads
News Paid, proprietary software is controversial in the open-source world, which is based on the theory that profits can be made on "free" products, but some open-source companies say it is the only way to continue to fund themselves.
[May 27, 2002, 13:33]
BitKeeper: No holds barred open source infighting
Talkback On the first page, the reporter says "Some free software advocates argue that proprietary applications should not be used, on principle, in the development of free and open source software. Rather it is closer to "Some free software advocates argue...
[April 21, 2005, 16:05]
Symbian chief blasts Microsoft
News Microsoft's efforts to take over the personal organiser and smartphone markets with its proprietary technology are fundamentally flawed, according to Symbian chief executive Colly Myers, who predicts the US software giant will be forced to move to...
[February 22, 2001, 14:53]
Linux PCs 'used to run pirated Windows'
Talkback The fact that people are then prepared to break the law and steal some proprietary software and install it onto some hardware they own is, frankly, nothing to do with the 'Linuxness' of the original PC, Linux as an operating system, or indeed PC...
[October 5, 2004, 15:30]
Report to World Bank recommends open standards
News In the interests of greater interoperability some governments are now beginning to move away from exclusively using proprietary software, notably Massachusetts, which is on track to only use software based on open standards from the beginning of...
[September 12, 2005, 18:00]
Gov't open-source guidelines ignored, says Ingres
News Shine said several software tenders had taken place since the Chief Information Officer Council issued the guidelines, but none took the policy into account and all had opted for proprietary systems. Watson also warned against public-sector...
[September 25, 2009, 16:28]
How open is the new Office?
News The software giant intends to make Extensible Markup Language (XML) a supported file format -- in addition to existing proprietary formats -- for its upcoming Office 11 desktop software, which is in the hands of about 12,000 beta testers.
[December 16, 2002, 11:50]
My response to Richard Stallman
Talkback I don't know, why does Stallman care so much about the fact that proprietary software exists in the world? I'm not saying that we should ONLY have proprietary software in the world, and I make that pretty clear in the article.
[January 9, 2004, 16:12]
