
Why Every Linux Application Known To Man Will Be SaaS Soon - nreece
http://blog.jamesurquhart.com/2008/08/why-every-linux-application-known-to.html
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mdasen
The problem with SaaS is that the GPL offers me no rights in that instance
because they aren't distributing and the GPL only comes into effect when a
copy is distributed. Whether or not you believe in free software, you can see
how the effectiveness of the GPL to fend off close-sourcing is diminished by
SaaS. Anyone can take GPL-licensed software, modify it and offer it as SaaS
without opening up that changed code.

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Herring
If this gets to be a problem I imagine people will just go with the affero
gpl. GPLv3 and AGPLv3 are mutually compatible.

I remember reading some Eben Moglen & i think he mentioned that they didn't
hardcode this into GPLv3 because the rights of someone using an ATM are
(should be?) different from those of someone owning the machine with the code.

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LogicHoleFlaw
Oh, the ATM is a good example. For a user-oriented website though, I think the
Affero licenses are a good idea if you care about Free Software. I personally
don't see a whole lot of difference between logging into a mainframe system
using a terminal, and logging into "the cloud" using my web browser.

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swombat
This article seems like a big bubble of hype without much substance. Skip.

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narag
Which are the "every Linux application known to man" that could be offered as
SaaS and get someone to pay for it? I can think of none.

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0x44
I guess that means my startup idea of offering `ls` as a web service is bound
to fail, then.

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silentbicycle
How about ed?

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silentbicycle
?

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jamesurquhart
Hmmmm. Perhaps I should have been more clear. Not necessarily applications
that are part of Linux, but the applications built to run on Linux.

\- Mule \- Sugar \- Scalix \- etc.

