Python Is Really Middleware

[Tim Daneliuk]

Chris Barker wrote:
> 

> 
> This is not at all what I meant. What I meant was that many companies
> and organisations keep restrictions on their code, even if it does not
> help, and may hurt, their bottom line. The microsoft example was an
> extreme example of a company whose bottom line would be hurt by freeing
> their code.
> 
> An example I can think of at the moment is hardware companies that keep
> their drivers proprietary: they are in the business of selling hardware,
> not drivers, the drivers are needed to use the hardware. The more they
> free the code of the drivers, and the more they make the specs of their
> hardware available, the more likely it is that someone will write a
> driver that they havn't written themselves (for Linux as an example),
> and then they can sell more hardware. Many times this information is
> kept proprietary simply because business peopl find the idea of giving
> away something they have paid for distainfull, it is closed minded
> business practices.
> 
>

Ah!  Sorry, I didn't understand your point.  And, yes, there are a lot
of silly companies that "cut off their nose to spite their face" - it
really *is* silly for a hw device manufacturer to *hide* their APIs
for all the reasons you mentioned.


> I'm not questioning that having your code GPL'd out from under you was a
> risk that may have made no sense for your company, the question was
> whether there was a risk of that happening. I imagine some years ago,
> and before the LGPL was established, that it was less clear how all this
> was applied. IN the current GPL FAQ at www.gnu.org, it clearly states
> that:

Yes, the example I cited was well before all this.  I need to go back
and reread the LGPL.  One area that was not (and still is not, only because
I have not kept up with it) clear to me is how code generated by
flex and bison was to be treated since they include GPLed code in the
output...  I'll get around to looking into this when I need to.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk
tundra at tundraware.com