Monthly Archives: May 2002

Microsoft At It Again

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Now Microsoft is trying to dictate how we license software we develop. They’re trying
to bully people away from GPL.

Microsoft’s
file-share rule makes waves
Microsoft has opened a new chapter in its long-running dispute with open-source software developers–and it could have antitrust implications.

In late March, Microsoft published a document that outlines how third-party developers can use Common Internet File Sharing (CIFS), a protocol developed by Microsoft that specifies how Windows PCs share files with servers.Though publishing the document should make it easier to write software that incorporates CIFS, it contains a crucial restriction that has instead handcuffed some developers.

Specifically, Microsoft requires programmers to sign an agreement that prohibits using information in the document when building software governed by the General Public License (GPL). Among the products affected by the restriction is Samba, widely used software that competes with file sharing technology in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Samba uses CIFS to communicate with client systems.

Global Village Idiocy

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A Liberal Slant to the News? by Nat Hentoff

In my experience, the two groups most acutely sensitive to criticism are cops and journalists. During the Giuliani years, fear of retribution was so great that some New Yorkers were hesitant to ask a cop for his or her badge number.

As for journalists, Bernard Goldberg’s book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News (Regnery) has been attacked by, among others, Tom Shales (The Washington Post), Michael Kinsley (Slate), Tom Goldstein (outgoing dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism), and Eric Alterman (The Nation), as if Goldberg were a shabby turncoat and an incompetent journalist besides.

Moreover, one of Goldberg’s former colleagues at CBS News, Eric Engberg, has actually accused Goldberg of having committed “an act of treason.” And Eric Alterman has signed to write a book proving there is no liberal bias in the media.