[DotGNU]first draft for FD press release

[Norbert Bollow]

NOT TO BE RELEASED YET
(The above line will eventually be changed to "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE")

Media Contact: FreeDevelopers
               .............................
               Phone: ......................



FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS RESPOND TO MICROSOFT'S PLANS FOR ACHIEVING
AN EFFECTIVE MONOPOLY ON E-COMMERCE AUTHENTICATION SERVICES

Washington DC, USA - FreeDevelopers announced today the DotGNU
project which is a response from Free Software developers to
Microsoft's .NET initiative.

FreeDevelopers ( which can be found on the internet at
http://freedevelopers.net ) is a software development company
which is very different from traditional companies:
FreeDevelopers has a "The Community is the Company" structure,
and all the software they develop comes with a license called
"GNU GPL" that gives the users of the programs a lot of rights.
These rights include the freedom to hire any programmer to
improve the program, and the freedom to redistribute the
program.  Computer programs where the users are given these
freedom rights are called Free Software.  So far much excellent
Free Software has been developed by volunteers working together
informally over the internet, for example most of the very
successful GNU/Linux operating system has been developed in this
way.  The company FreeDevelopers has been started with the goal
to create a corporate structure that will allow Free Software
developers to get paid for the work they do.

The DotGNU Project (which has a website at http://dotgnu.org )
has been started by Free Software developers who are very
concerned about what would happen to e-commerce and the freedom
of the internet if Microsoft is successful with their plans for
a centralized authentication system.  Microsoft wants everyone's
personal information and credit card numbers to be stored in
their "Passport" system, from where it can be made availbale to
online merchants without any inconvenience to the end user.
However, such convenience can be also achieved without a central
database that contains everyone's personal information.

David Sugar, CTO of FreeDevelopers said "the existing passport
system offers no technological advantage, and in fact, is a much
poorer technology than what can actually be offered, such as in
a distributed authentication and user data storage system."
Sugar, who is highly repected among Free Software developers as
the maintainer of Bayonne, the GNU telephony system, goes on to
say that Microsoft's passport system is "ethically and morally
wrong."

Microsoft's centralized system certainly comes with a number of
serious risks for consumers.

For example if Microsoft acquires a financial services company, 
Microsoft would be legally permitted to share and distribute any
and ALL financial information it may collect in it's global
passport based solution with ANYONE it chooses.  Even if one
"opts out" of this by filling out and returning an appropriate
form later, Microsoft would still be free to share and sell past
information to ANYONE, and any current information to ANY of
it's existing business partners at will.

The developers behind the DotGNU project are not only concerned
about what Microsoft can do with the data legally and
intentionally.  The governments of some countries are interested
in limiting their citizens' freedoms.  Can Microsoft prevent the
secret service of such a government from breaking into the
servers of the "passport" system and silently snooping on all
ongoing e-commerce transactions?  Can Microsoft prevent a
well-funded secret service from intercepting confidential data
with a so-called "man in the middle" attack?

Another risk is that when Microsoft controls a centralized
authentication system for all of the internet, the company can
use this monopoly to effectively force everyone to use software
that is controlled by Microsoft.  Norbert Bollow, a
Switzerland-based business coach, said "I contribute to the
DotGNU project because I want my clients to be free to run their
businesses in the way they want, because that is what gives them
personal satisfaction and also the profits they want.  Depending
on circumstances, the use of software components which cannot be
changed (because they are controlled by a Non-Free Software
company like Microsoft) can be anything from a minor annoyance
to something that really hinders your business success and
profits."

Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers, calls DotGNU a "very
important strategic project for free software." He adds "It is
probably the battleground where we win or lose against Microsoft
in the next few years."

Just like it is the goal of the GNU project, see http://www.gnu.org
to create a complete operating system that makes it completely
unnecessary to use a non-free operating system like e.g. Microsoft
Windows, it's the goal of the DotGNU project to be a complete
competitor to Microsoft's ".Net initiative" and "Hailstorm"
products.

The DotGNU project will compete with Microsoft for end-users,
business customers and developers.  It is a huge project.  Barry
Fitzgerald, a Free Software developer who contributes to DotGNU,
said "It's natural to have doubts about the implications of this
project, since the scope of this project is to counter something
that Microsoft is doing.  I, too, had doubts upon first hearing
of the project.  However, DotGNU is not simply a Free Software
version of .NET -- DotGNU will be a suite of projects that are
designed to enhance the capabilities of the Free Software
infrustructure outright.  Each of these projects can have value
as part of DotGNU, or as stand-alone products.  If Microsoft is
making these tools, then someone will use them.  It's our
responsibility to counter that usage with a Free alternative.
Also, our responsibility is to create this infrustructure in a
way that is consistant with sensitivity to the user's privacy
and with the sensitivity of their data.  If there are problems
in the Microsoft architecture that users will implement, it is
our responsibility to produce Free alternatives that address and
ostensibly fix those problems."

Right now is an excellent opportunity for every programmer and
software developer who cares about matters of Freedom to get
involved right from the beginning in a truly important project.
A good starting point is to subscribe to the DotGNU developers
mailing list at http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/developers


About the relation of the DotGNU project to the GNU system:

The DotGNU project has been endorsed by the Free Software
Foundation and accepted as a part of the GNU system.  Therefore,
to be quite precise, DotGNU is a GNU project that has been
initiated by FreeDevelopers and that continues to be supported
by FreeDevelopers.


About GNU:

GNU is a Free Software Unix-like operating system.  Development of GNU
began in 1984.

GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating system with
the kernel, Linux, written by Linus Torvalds in 1991.  The various
versions of GNU/Linux have an estimated 20 million users.

Some people call the GNU/Linux system "Linux", but this misnomer leads
to confusion (people cannot tell whether you mean the whole system or
the kernel, one part), and spreads an inaccurate picture of how, when
and where the system was developed.  Making a consistent distinction
between GNU/Linux, the whole operating system, and Linux, the kernel, is
the best way to clear up the confusion.


About the Free Software Foundation:

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs.  The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software---particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants---and free documentation for free software.  The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software.  Their web site, located at
http://www.gnu.org, is an important source of information about
GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.