[ros-dev] Some thoughts

[Daniel Hazelton]

On Saturday 17 May 2008 10:16:22 pm James Tabor wrote:
> Hi,
> I think someone may have told me this but since I work long hours I
> might of been half a sleep. So they did kick us?!?,,,, THOSE
> BASTARDZZZzzssss!
>
> On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 12:29 PM, Aleksey Bragin <aleksey at reactos.org> 
wrote:
> > then kicking us out of google summer of code for two years in a row
> > WBR,
> > Aleksey Bragin.

As far as it goes, the only potential legal problems that I can see are all in 
regards to the reverse engineering process. Otherwise, ReactOS is exactly as 
legal as WINE - because it's providing an independent implementation of an 
API. (I'm not sure about some things, like what patents MS may have on 
certain things - like the FAT32 filesystem, but AFAICT, the law is clear that 
an interface - like that provided by an API - cannot be copyright.)

That ReactOS has been having all of these problems is both good and bad in my 
book. It's bad in that it's really held up development but it's good in that 
it means there are people taking notice. If ReactOS succeeds in providing a 
F/OSS alternative to Windows that fully supports Windows then there is a good 
chance that many more people will move away from Windows.

DRH

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