Re: Netscape Code

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

This whole thing reminds me of John Perry Barlow's prediction that
copyright will be replaced by free information, with large institutions
paying for development costs. 

But maybe its that, and maybe it's a different (even if it is much more
interesting) version of the ECCO story.    Question is, will NS continue
to fund R&D on the code?  Jamie


Norm wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 22 Jan 1998 14:26:38 -0500 (EST), Matthew Benjamin wrote:
> 
> >As a programmer, I can say that one of the most important questions
> >about Netscape's promise to distribute Communicator source code, is
> >whether it includes the CORBA/IIOP object protocol capability included
> >in Communicator 4.
> >
> 
>      I can't tell for sure but I would think so.  I didn't hear them
> say they'd only be releasing parts of the source, so unless I hear
> otherwise I'd assume the CORBA code would be included
> 
> >If so, CORBA should be a major focus of energy by advocates of open
> >computer systems, and a competitive software industry.
> >
> >CORBA is an OPEN object-oriented communication protocol, sort of like
> >Microsoft's COM/OLE/ActiveX-but it is in the public domain, supervised
> >by the Object Management Group, a consortium of 700+ industry companies.
> >Anyone can download the CORBA specifications, and efficient, free
> >implementations of CORBA exist (eg,
> >http://siesta.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html ).  Free availability of a
> >commercial CORBA client implementation would give CORBA a major boost in
> >the marketplace.
> >
> >Widespread support for CORBA protocols would be a major blow for
> >Microsoft, which is trying to lock the customers into its own,
> >proprietary protocols, which are essentially supported only on
> >Microsoft's Operating Systems.  It would be a significant win for open
> >competition in the software industry.
> 
>      It would not only be good for CORBA, it would also be a victory
> for consumers in general.  IMNSHO there's no place for closed
> proprietary protocols in an open internet.  The internet should be a
> place where everyone can communicate with each other regardless of what
> platform they're using.  M$'s failure to support open standards is
> nothing but a scheme to lock users into running a M$ OS.  IMO not only
> would CORBA objects make it easier for everyone to adhere to a common
> standard but it's also superior technology to the pseudo-object
> orientated COM/DCOM junk that M$ keeps trying to ram down everyone's
> throat.  Lets face it, if COM/DCOM was such great technology they would
> need to force everyone to use it, but the fact is that with CORBA
> objects we get superior technology that has the added value of also
> being 'open'.
> 
>  ...Cheers,
> 
>  ...Norm
> 
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-- 
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
love@cptech.org | http://www.cptech.org
202.387.8030, fax 202.234.5176