OStatic

This piece by Bruce Byfield sparked my interest a bit, because the topic of world domination, is one that keeps me up at night. Specifically -- how can Linux edge closer to a majority market share, particularly on the desktop?

When you're trying to provide a system that is appealing to former Windows users, you generally find that a lot of people expect features that are often only available from proprietary drivers, codecs, or applications. So, the question is whether Linux vendors and projects should supply proprietary software in one form or another to address those needs, or to insist only on free software.

As open source grows, so do the legal kerfuffles surrounding it. Today, Red Hat is pulling headlines for merely hiring two big gun IP attorneys, and last week Gartner researchers warned of possible strings of lawsuits from Microsoft following its new openness initiative.

You can never be too careful about the law if you're working in the open source world. If you want a free, downloadable resource that does quite an exhaustive job of covering the legal issues pertaining to open source, you can now get the Software Freedom Law Center's Legal Issue Primer.