Not only does this
avoid confusion with the word "gnu," the name of the
African antelope, Connochaetes gnou , it also avoids
confusion with the adjective "new." "We've been working
on it for 17 years now, so it is not exactly new any
more," Stallman says. Source: author notes and online
transcript of "Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation,"
Richard Stallman's May 29, 2001, speech at New York University.
http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt
, the amalgamated operating system built around the
GPL-protected Linux kernel, and Windows over the last
10 years reveals the wisdom of both perspectives.
Nevertheless, the battle for momentum is an important
one in the software industry. Even powerful vendors
such as Microsoft rely on the support of third-party
software developers whose tools, programs, and computer
games make an underlying software platform such as
Windows more attractive to the mainstream consumer.
Citing the rapid evolution of the technology
marketplace over the last 20 years, not to mention his
own company's admirable track record during that
period, Mundie advised listeners to not get too carried
away by the free software movement's recent momentum:
Two decades of experience have shown that an economic
model that protects intellectual property and a
business model that recoups research and development
costs can create impressive economic benefits and
distribute them very broadly.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51