From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-09-14T03:04:40+09:00
Subject: Re: IronRuby

On Thu, Sep 13, 2007 at 11:20:39AM +0900, Michael T. Richter wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-13-09 at 10:01 +0900, Phil wrote:
> 
> > > And this is different from the viral portions of the GPL suite how,
> > > precisely?  If I make a program with over a million lines of code 
> > > and add a hundred lines from a GPLed source, suddenly all of my 
> > > millions of lines of code are under the GPL. 
> > > Or is this different because it's Microsoft?
> 
> 
> 
> > Actually, the old BSD license with attribution clause is a closer fit. The
> > MS-PL doesn't require you to publish your code with the same license, as the GPL does.
> 
> 
> Well, fair enough.  The point I was trying to establish was that it's
> not unusual for licenses to say "we encompass any work you do" --
> whether the "encompassing" involves attribution (old-style BSD or
> current MS-PL) or viral infection (GPL).  The secondary point is that
> people really need to stop "MS is evil, therefore anything from MS is
> evil"-style reasoning.  (And I say this as a person who switched
> permanently away from MS technologies in 2004.)

Agreed.  I'm all for being incredibly suspicious of anything Microsoft
does -- but suspicion shouldn't translate to simply rejecting everything
with the word "Microsoft" or the letters "MS" attached without even
bothering to look at it.  After all, the best trackball I've ever owned
was a Microsoft product, even if the worst OS I've ever used also came
from Microsoft.

I don't trust Microsoft as far as I can throw the 900 pound gorilla, but
even pathological liars must tell the truth from time to time, even if
that truth is only setup for another lie.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
W. Somerset Maugham: "The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for
wit."