Microsoft: Linux is anti-commercial

References to free software and Linux were removed from a UN document after Microsoft claimed that such software aims to ‘make it impossible to make any income on software as a commercial product’

Microsoft asked for references to free software to be removed from a document presented at last week’s UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference, the software giant admitted on Friday.

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is unhappy that the document was changed and claims that even though it was on the panel discussing the document, it was not made aware of Microsoft’s changes.

The document, known as the Vienna Conclusions, discusses issues around IT and creativity. The original draft of the document discussed how the free software model is changing the way people do business.

“Increasingly, revenue is generated not by selling content and digital works, as they can be freely distributed at almost no cost, but by offering services on top of them. The success of the free software model is one example,” stated the original document, according to the FSFE.

But the final version of the document contains no reference to free software. “Increasingly, revenue is generated by offering services on top of contents,” states the final version of the document.

Full article: ZDNet UK