Re: [DotGNU]DotGNU Manifesto - Draft Version 0.3

[Norbert Bollow]

> That should be also a clear roadmap as to what is useable 
> from the dotgnu system from a lgpl perspective. What parts can I use in
> a non-free system. 

As a rule of thumb, DotGNU should allow LGPL-style access to all
functionality that one would reasonably expect a CLI+webservices
platform to have.  Functionality which goes beyond that should be
GPL'd.

The reason is that whenever that is possible without harming the
viability of DotGNU as a platform we should do what we can to help
Free Software apps increase their competitive edge in comparison to
proprietary alternatives.

For a more detailed explanation, see

  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html

> What parts of the dotgnu can I use to work with even even a competitive
> product to dotgnu? Lets say that I want to use a job queueing system
> from microsoft. (bad example), but what interfaces are supported that
> allow a plug and play exchanging of dotgnu parts?

If the vendor of the proprietary "job queueing system" that you want
to use is unfriendly to DotGNU, then the only way to interoperate with
it will be through any webservice protocol interfaces it may provide.

Besides GNU policy reasons, there are also business strategy reasons
why it would be a bad idea to try to support the use of a Microsoft-made
components as a plug-and-play replacement for a DotGNU components:  With
the next security bugfix for that component, Microsoft could easily
introduce some code that relies on some undocumented quirk of
Microsoft's platform.  This monopolistic company certainly isn't above
such tactics.  According to [1], in the earliest days of the IBM PC,
when Lotus was still more profitable than Microsoft, an internal
Microsoft motto stated "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run", and they
put some hidden bugs into DOS 2.0 that caused Lotus 1-2-3 to break
down when it was loaded.

Greetings, Norbert.

[1] "Tempted by .NET?" by Richard Hillesley: Linux User No 15
    (Oct 2001), p. 15-21.).  In that article, "'The Plot to Get Bill
    Gates' by Gary Rivlin" is quoted as the source of the information.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch