RE: [PHP4BETA] Professional PHP by Schumann

At 02:12 02/01/2000 , Derek Neighbors wrote:

Zeev, Just because one uses OpenSource tools does not mean they ascribe to OpenSource ideals at all. In fact, it just makes them GREEDY and worse than such institutions as Microsoft. Example: OpenSource - All Software should be open/free. Microsoft - All Software should be closed/proprietary. Companies like Amazon - Your software should be open/free. Ours should be closed/proprietary.

I don't think all software should be open/free. I think that opensource is a cool idea that's great for development, but it's not a religion. Opensource comes with NO strings attached. It encouraged commercial companies to use it. If the real intention was 'well, you can use it for free, but we'd really expect all of the software you make to also be free', its acceptance would be much smaller, and it would still be a renegade, fanatics-only movement. Today it isn't, and IMO, it's a good thing. Software patents suck, from what I understand about them. It's a new trend, and I believe that if Amazon hadn't done it, someone else would have, and perhaps that's what they were afraid of. I think that it's not Amazon that's to be blamed, it's the law that allows software patents to even exist.

And quite frankly I am ashamed to say I compromise in situations where there is not an OpenSource alternative.

Why are you ashamed? Taking opensource to this religious extent makes no sense. If there's a much better commercial alternative, I see no reason not to use it, unless you actually need the source code. If the opensource alternative is almost as good it's perhaps worth missing some features (since they'll most likely get added anyway), but otherwise, IMHO, it's not. Zeev -- Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/