4 ms·

That's a MS screw-up, not an argument against using proprietary platforms. God knows how many web site owners Google could sue if it applied its Adsense TOS to

by ced 19y ago

That's a MS screw-up, not an argument against using proprietary platforms. God knows how many web site owners Google could sue if it applied its Adsense TOS to the letter, but they know better than doing that.

Tichy 19y ago
Sure it is a screw-up, but if you don't use a proprietary platform, that screw-up can not happen.
corentin 19y ago
There are other known examples of proprietary platform problems (e.g. the Linux/BitKeeper debacle; abandoned products by Borland, Microsoft and others leaving developers alone in the middle of the desert) Proprietary software is inherently bad for practical reasons, not just for philosophical/idealistic reasons. Now, I'm not saying software developers should not make a living (I'm one myself). It's just that we didn't solve the problem of getting income from open source yet (as far as I'm concerned, the service model of Red Hat, IBM and others is irrelevant).
- ced 19y ago
- ced 19y ago
  It's not inherently bad. There are trade-offs. Yes, proprietary software carries increased legal risks. OTOH, it is often better precisely because there is more incentive to build it than to build OSS.