[TriLUG] AOL Redhat Linux?!?

[Matt Matthews]

Ramble follows...

I've done some thinking about this today, and I'd like to think that this is
really a good thing. Bear with me here...especially if I'm factually off on
this stuff.

As far as I can tell, AOL/TW bought Netscape and through that acquisition has
sponsored the Mozilla project for a good while. I know they're not using it,
but they do at least provide some of the money that pays for real programmers
to have real jobs making this project work. The MPL is really a pretty decent
license, so to the extent that AOL/TW are funding a decent open source
project, I'm pleased with them. Further, I understand that now parts, if not
all, of Mozilla is available under GPL, if you choose, making Mozilla stand up
there with Linux and Apache as great free software projects. If AOL/TW were to
continue this benevolent attitude toward free software, then I can't say I'd
be disappointed.

Purchasing a Linux vendor, especially the one with the largest US presence,
could continue this trend. Provided the independence I perceive of the
Netscape/Mozilla project is real and they extended the same deal to Red Hat,
they could potentially provide a higher quality, more user-friendly Linux
distribution that has one added goal: the built-in hooks for proprietary
branding, much like how the Mozilla code gets transformed into a Netscape
browser now. Sure, we might not get all of the best functionality, but then
that's how a company makes money: by provided added-value that you can't get
for free all the time.

As a side note, if GNOME 2 became the basis for a future Linux desktop, you
can bet that we'd start to see some REAL attention paid to ease-of-use and
accessibility issues. These contributions can be provided for the GNOME
framework itself without giving up the proprietary technologies that AOL could
add or the exclusive media opportunities that AOL/TW could provide to
AOL-specific desktops.

The best part, hopefully, would be that any code that AOL/TW sponsored and
licensed under the GPL would be just more code we can all take for ourselves
and share. If the Mozilla project can spawn something as awesome as Galeon,
then I would be excited to see what happens if AOL/TW starts paying for the
polishing and expansion of the infrastructure underlying my favorite Linux
applications.

Sure, I don't want to be another @aol.com user. But if paying my TW cable bill
means that some of the money in the bill is paying for free software to get
written, then I'll be that much happier to send my money off every week.

Sorry to sound like a AOL/TW shill, but this could be a real opportunity to
put some serious money behind free software, and I for one am not going to let
my aversion to "You've Got Mail" turn me away.

Regards,
matt

-- 
Matt Matthews     \ ph: 919.660.2811        \ Use GNU/Linux  _o) w00t
Duke Univ., Postdoc\ jvmatthe at math.duke.edu  \____________   /\\
Dept. of Mathematics\ http://www.math.duke.edu/~jvmatthe/ \ _\_V