Hi !
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Steve Holden
Christian Heimes wrote:
Steve Holden wrote:
Devs:
If you are interested in offering better Windows support then please read the email below
[...]
MSDN subscriptions include copies of most Microsoft products (including Office and Exchange) for use while developing and testing software. For more details, check here - we provide Visual Studio Pro with MSDN Premium under this program (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/subscriptionschart.aspx).
Thanks you for getting in touch with Microsoft. The deal is worth a fortune for any Windows developer!
Does the MSDN subscription also include the permission to create and release binaries? [...] Can you please verify that we are allowed to use the subscription for that purpose, too?
I'll ask. I don't see why not (it would hardly be in Microsoft's interest to help us create unreleasable open source projects, would it?)
When talking about MS + FOSS everything is possible :-/ My question is the following : - What are the implications for Py users ? I mean, even if somebody (not me but enterprises & organizations I work or may work for in the future ;o) decides to use Windows pay for that and everything else, I'd not like to qualify as a "pirate" (or alike) for using a Py distribution or app including MS Intelectual Property (MSIP) (and MS loves MSIP -even if nobody can see it- and all kind of legal issues, especially with FOSS) nor even have Py in the middle of a patent dispute or something ... And they have some "great" innovations [1]_ to ensure (sometimes, I know) that (some) apps (who decides ?) wont run on a Win host. I could mention a lot of snippets in that text (yes it's very "interesting" and "substantial", and "useful" ) here goes one of them : {{{ According to another aspect of the invention, the digest catalog includes, for each program file corresponding to an application or driver that should be executable by the computer, a digitally signed hash value that is generated from a hash function based on the corresponding program file. When attempting to load a particular file, the loader generates a hash value and compares it to the decrypted hash values in the digest catalog. If the comparison results in no matches, then the corresponding program file (and thus the application or driver) is not loaded. }}} OTOH : - What are the implications for other devs (not core ;o) who use to download sources and try new things, or perhaps use Py code the way they want to solve an specific issue, or modify it somehow to experiment or learn something, or whatever ? - Will that affect contributions from «future or potential» devs ? - Will they also need an MS license to see or compile (or whatever) the changes contributed by Py devs ? - What about if for some reason, a idea or impl or alg or snippet (or whatever) is propagated to GNU/Linux distributions and it's MSIP? (considering former disputes like «Linux kernel violates 42 of MS patents») ? .. [1] Restricted software and hardware usage on a computer (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=7,536,726) PD: My question is not technical at all but at least for me is important (even if I'm not a lawyer, nor a core Py dev ;o) since I manage (and develop ;o) several Py-based apps running on Win hosts in different locations . Finally I clearly see that this msg is strongly influenced by my biases, paranoia, and maybe I'm overreacting ... but I prefer to ask before things actually happen (and MS has a long history specially with FOSS + patents + legal affaires). I apologize in advance if I'm being rude or naïve or * -- Regards, Olemis. Blog ES: http://simelo-es.blogspot.com/ Blog EN: http://simelo-en.blogspot.com/ Featured article: