[whatwg] about rich internat applications

[Ian Hickson]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Didier PH Martin wrote:
>>
>> Personally I am opposed to technologies that make it harder to copy,
>> tweak, or otherwise play with the source of applications. XBL, like SVG
>> and CSS, will be a (theoretically) human-readable format.
>
> Yes the open source mantra. Can open source components be the source of a
> sound business model? (I mean here something that help people pay their rent
> and live with).

You tell me. HTML is "open"; can HTML be the source of a sound business
model?


> What is more important, get access to lousy code or get access to a
> components and a vendor having interests to keep us as customers?

The former. Or more to the point, freedom. The freedom to use the markup,
for any purpose. The freedom to study how the markup works, and adapt it
to your needs. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor. The freedom to improve the markup, and release your improvements
to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Freedom is way more important than "vendors" and "customers". At least to
me. (As far as allowed by local laws, of course.)

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

(With reference to http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)