Ad Terras Per Aspera

Mick Sorenson, from his blog Inside The dotNET, has admitted that Microsoft has been stealing Open Source Software.

Our lawyers have pretty much assured us that the GNU Public License (and other related viral licenses) are invalid due to them giving too many rights to the users; and by giving the code away, they are making the code public domain and giving up their copyright… or something like that. IANAL, but thats pretty much the gist of it.

(…)

Project Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform Apple (or, simply, STFU Apple) is the official name of the GNUstep intergration project. Right now, we’re using Gorm 1.0 (which came out a few days ago) , an application like Apple’s Interface Builder, but vastly improved and easier to use.

I’m not sure if this is real or not, but the screenshot looks pretty good (although easy to fix), and what he’s saying rings true. Microsoft knows they have fallen behind Apple, and it’s because Apple integrated NextSTEP into OSX when they bought them out. Though, stealing GNUstep isn’t quite the answer… infact, its an illegal answer, the kind that allows the FSF to sue Microsoft into the ground, and then sue them some more. I’m willing to say that the FSF will sue Microsoft so hard, Bill Gates’ great grandchildren will have an irrational fear of lawyers.

So, I didn’t feel like coding today, so I whipped out gimp and messed around with a famous Einstein photo instead, and did something the GNUstep project might like.

So, what do my millions… thousands… hundreds… dozen… two readers think?

So, everyone has noticed the CNET rumor mill bullshitting about Apple ditching IBM for Intel.

You can all stop laughing now; and for those that didn’t get the joke: Apple and IBM are an item. Apple has been using IBM processors since the switch to PowerPC all those years ago, and Apple will continue to be making Macs with PPCs in them until the end of the universe.

However, lets say Apple does get in bed with Intel, we have two choices. (I’m doubting this will happen, but lets humor the idea)

Behind door number one: Apple is secretly working on a new Newton handheld PDA, and wants to use Intel’s half-way decent XScale embedded CPU series, but continuing to use PPC on their desktops, workstations, servers, and laptops.

Behind door number two: Apple is secretly working on reviving Yellow Box (OpenStep for Windows), and wants to produce really cheap Yellow Box+Windows machines, and wants to use Intel x86 on the equivalent of an x86 Mac.

Now, I doubt number two will ever happen. Yellow Box/Windows is a very bad idea, and runs in the opposite direction OSX is going in; however, if Apple were to get their tendrils into Microsoft, Longhorn (often quoted as being Microsoft’s clone of OSX) might actually get released in my lifetime, and actually rock to boot. And if Windows would quit sucking, and inherit Yellow Box functionality, I’d quit hating Windows.

This, however, brings up GNUstep for Windows. If Windows ends up getting an up-to-date version of Yellow Box from Apple, GNUstep for Windows would not be required anymore as we would have OpenStep on Windows provided by the company who bought out NeXT; but it would also become a threat to Yellow Box.

Of course, being able to build OpenStep apps as native Windows ones is not something GNUstep can do, but Yellow Box will be able to do (and will have to do to avoid rejection and failure); this said, I’d even switch to Yellow Box (for building OpenStep apps on Windows) due to its superior integration efforts by the alternate reality Apple (led by Steve Jobs in a beard).

… So, wait, would that mean the alternate reality me runs Windows, because Linux is under a draconian license, and the Overlords Torvald and Stallman are trying to sue Microsoft (the last bastion of freedom in the world) into the ground?