Interesting :-) article and whitepaper on Open Source Software

wirth at almaden.ibm.com wirth at almaden.ibm.com
Tue Nov 3 20:18:47 UTC 1998


Dan Gillmor had an interesting column in the San Jose Mercury News this
morning, "Microsoft wary of open source, embedded systems", which you can
find at:

     http://www.mercurycenter.com/columnists/gillmor/docs/dg110398.htm



He discusses a purported internal MS whitepaper on Open Source Software
(called "OSS" in the whitepaper :-) which was leaked by Eric Raymond as
"The Halloween Document".  You can find it, along with Eric's analysis and
marginal comments (with ongoing updates, now at version 1.4) at:

     http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/halloween.html



Eric's comments include a reference to Squeak:

"This prediction is of a piece with the author's earlier assertion that
open-source development relies critically on design precedents and is
unavoidably backward-looking. It's myopic -- apparently things like Python,
Beowulf, and Squeak (to name just three of hundreds of innovative projects)
don't show on his radar."



Enjoy,



Mike Wirth

<usual disclaimers>





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