The Free and Open Source Software Learning Center hosted a debate between representatives for three different open source license alternatives. I was asked to participate as one of the debaters, presenting my view of the advantages of the BSD license.

Last week brought news about Microsoft inadvertently using open source code in one of their binary-only tools -- code that had to be redistributed with the tool itself.

For many within the open-source community, it's easier to hate Microsoft than to engage it. This is a mistake, and won't help open source solve its own problems.

Has Microsoft gone one step closer to patenting the words "May I?" That's been the general sentiment about the granting of Microsoft's "Rights elevator" patent -- which would cover User Account Control ("UAC") in Vista and Windows 7, but possibly also the generic sudo command in Unix.