Shared source: Difference between revisions

Shared source (edit)

6 bytes added , 24 November 2003

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-'''Shared source''' is a term popularized by [[Microsoft]] to mean basically a vendor-controlled [[consortium]] with conventions and agreements almost as strong as [[mandatory patent licensing]], but in fact relying solely on that one vendor's judgement.  It claims the primary advantage of being [[self-funding]] while [[free software]] and much [[open source]] are not, relying on what Microsoft calls 'unsustainable' donations and volunteer effort exclusively.
+'''Shared source''' is a term popularized by [[Microsoft]] to mean basically a vendor-controlled [[consortium]] with conventions and agreements almost as strong as [[mandatory patent license]] methods, but in fact relying solely on that one vendor's judgement.  It claims the primary advantage of being [[self-funding]] while [[free software]] and much [[open source]] are not, relying on what Microsoft calls 'unsustainable' donations and volunteer effort exclusively.
 One legitimate place where shared source seems to beat all other [[license]] models is in [[usability]] - the most popular user interfaces in the world come from [[Apple]] and [[Microsoft]] and are exactly this kind of tightly vendor-controlled pseudo-consortium, using [[patent]], [[trademark]] and [[copyright]] all quite strongly to ensure that there is no [[bad copy problem]] in the GUI.
 For instance, if you ship a Windows application without "File, Edit, View..." on the menu line, have fun trying to call it Win-anything...