Re: [DotGNU]Re: [arch-users] In defense of (the idea of) having an XML-RPC api

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "Seth" == Seth Johnson <address@hidden> writes:

    Seth> Just FYI, to put things in perspective with respect to
    Seth> Microsoft's latest middleware strategy: DotGNU is doing an
    Seth> extremely important thing -- as quickly as possible (and
    Seth> their work has been amazing in this respect) creating an
    Seth> alternative to .NET.

I see your perspective, and raise you one.

dotGNU is just as dangerous as .NET.  "The medium is the message",
McLuhan taught us.  And what is the message of the medium (at least as
described by Mr. "Clients as Thin as My Understanding" on arch-users)?

                  THIS DATA YOURS NOW DATA OURS IS.

Furthermore, unless dotGNU uses something like the Apple Free Software
License[1], the inherent technology strongly _encourages_ deployment
of proprietary versions of dotGNU (the so-called ASP loophole).  It's
probably even possible to sell them without losing much proprietary
control.  (See the paper by Boldrin and Levine reviewed by rms in
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy.)

dotGNU will be abused.  dotGNU is the "socially responsible" corporate
IT department's wet dream: free software that promises expanded
budgets and control over the independent cowboys.  And most worrying,
being free it will lower TCO of an IT dictatorship dramatically.

Don't bother trying to convince me otherwise; I'm not interested in
"stopping" dotGNU or anything like that.  I'm happy to eat the pudding
as it's produced.

But with unthinking advocates like Mr. DuPont, I see more potential
for harm than good in dotGNU.  To do good, dotGNU needs to concentrate
on the _business_ side of offering _cheap_ _high-quality_ services to
the bovines, to keep the herd out of the corrals of Gates and Jobs.
And the services have to be good enough to undercut internal corporate
IT empires.  Otherwise, the main customers for responsible dotGNU
services will be those with cypherpunk tendencies anyway, hardly
likely to use .NET in any case.


its-the-grit-in-the-oyster-that-causes-the-pearls-ly y'rs,

address@hidden



Footnotes: 
[1]  Which, of course, is not free, and although it's OSI certified, I
don't see how _that_ happened.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.