[LINK] Credentica Sold to Microsoft

[Rick Welykochy]

Craig Sanders wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 09, 2008 at 11:54:00AM +1100, Roger Clarke wrote:
>> Kim Cameron wrote on Saturday, March 08, 2008 4:25 PM:
>>> If anyone harbours any lingering concerns about OSP, I would be happy
>>> to help dispel them.
> 
> issues i'd want 'dispelled' include:
> 
>  - incompatibility with the GNU GPL
> 
>  - revocation clauses in the software license
> 
>  - patent licenses and, of course, revocability clauses in the licenses
> 
>  - discrimination for/against particular kinds of uses and/or users
>    (e.g. for schools only; for home/personal use only; not for
>    for-profit use; etc)
> 
> if it's not irrevocably free and open, for any use, by anyone or any
> organisation, then it's not free or open at all.

I don't have Roger's original posting to hand. He mentioned some other
things that would be of great concern in the implementation of
this system, along the lines of the following:

(*) The MS software platforms are by no means secure and reliable
     enough in their current state to even begin thinking about offering
     up digital IDents from Windows.

(*) MS has a culture of secrecy, FUD and misinformation when it
     comes to issues of disclosure and transparency. A real and
     believable cultural corporate shift would be required before
     any such system could be trusted.

(*) MS has a truly memorable track record in taking good wholesome and
     secure systems, embracing them, extending them, then breaking them
     and making them insecure and broken. IIRC, their PPTP (secure IP)
     and Kerberos implementations are still borked as but one example.

(*) MS has not demonstrated its ability (or is it inclination) towards
     interoperability. I suppose this comes with the nature of its
     20th century proprietary business model and culture. Heck, even
     their own "standards" are not implemented according to plan. Have
     you ever tried to implement their "fave icon" for the web? They
     didn't even implement their own spec. properly. Of course we who
     provide "fave icons" pay the price and implement it in the same
     buggy way.

And of course your points about truly "open and free" are well
taken. Unless this software can qualify, say, for a debian base
distribution it will be of minimal value to the FOSS community.


cheers
rickw




-- 
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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving Instructor

Anyone who says he won't resign four times, will.
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