Archive for July 9th, 2007
Open source’s benefits to business spelled out
The head of the Free Software Foundation says the new GPL version will enable corporate users to get more from non-proprietary apps
Free Software Foundation (FSF) leader Richard Stallman said at the launch of version 3 of the General Public License (GPLv3) late last month that businesses are “foolish” not to adopt non-proprietary technologies.
Surrounded by supporters from the software programming and academic fields on the June 29 launch at the foundation’s Boston headquarters, Stallman detailed his opinions on why businesses should use open source software.
By turning to alternatives like the GNU operating system rather than the proprietary technologies that dominate corporate IT shops today, Stallman said, businesses will become less dependent on software vendors to help solve many of the issues around applications development and security that currently prove troublesome.
“Business users should have the same freedom over the control of their software as everyone else, and for businesses to use software they don’t have control over is foolish,” Stallman said.
“Today, many businesses look at free software in terms of convenience and say that it is impossible to make a shift, but there is already free software available for doing a lot of the jobs businesses want to do.”
Read more: Computerworld
