SuSE CTO: the source code should be back to the IT history of the Community.

SuSE acquired by Novell has updated its understanding of the open source community. In April this year, Suse opened the source code of its YaST installation and configuration tool. Previously, YaST had been used as a proprietary software, and Suse was regarded as its competitiveness.

"Returning to the community is not only about attitudes, but with deeper ideas. "During the LinuxWorld China 2004 Conference, Suse CTO Juergen Geck told reporters that if the source code is not contributed to the community, it will be difficult to integrate this technology into mainstream applications, after SuSE's YaST program, this software will no longer form a direct competitor with commercial software from IBM and other companies.

Juergen Geck said that YaST was incorporated into the GPL protocol. This software can be widely used and become a module in the software factory ca, HP, and the former competitor IBM management software, this leads the development of management software.

The GPL protocol was written by the Free Software Foundation ("FSF") created by Richard Stallman in 1989 to eliminate restrictions on computer program replication, distribution, learning, and modification, break the shackles of the copyright legal system on software and protect the public's freedom to share and modify software. The GPL Protocol stipulates that, as long as you comply with the rules for copying, distributing, and modifying GPL-related programs, you have the right to copy and distribute programs in the form of executed code, but the source code must be attached with the execution program, or provide written quotation information for source code. If the original copyright holder explicitly states in the statement that the program or work is published under the GPL clause, the GPL applies.

Speaking of patent disputes that are becoming increasingly prominent in the Linux World, Juergen Geck believes that litigation will always exist, but this is not exclusive to the open source world. Commercial software also has many legal issues. "Looking back at the history of IT development is full of litigation and technical quarrels ."

As a free software Linux Enterprise under the GPL protocol, it is also required to disclose its results while accepting programs. However, the common situation in China is that Linux enterprises are not enthusiastic about open source code, and they are mainly worried about the malicious use of their research results.

However, when odsl is set up in Beijing, the domestic market is increasingly valued by the Linux World, and domestic enterprises are gradually integrated into the Linux community. Recently, a message from co-founder open-source software Co., Ltd. was reported that the company plans to publish all product source code while releasing new desktop OS products. (Zdnet China/Zhang Lan)

Source: enet