Draft 1 of the OpenDesk.com Public Source License

[phred at teleport.com]

A little anecdote, if I might be permitted.

Former Colorado governor Roy Romer (who's a John Deere dealer and
rancher by trade when he's not politickin') likes to tell the story about
the Iowa farmer whose corn won the prize at the county fair every
year, and then he'd give some of the seed to his neighbors.  "But
Farmer Brown," a visitor to the fair said one year, "how come you give
away the seed to your prize-winning corn?  Won't that undermine
your ability to win the blue ribbon at the fair every year?"

"Well, you have to understand something about growing corn, I guess,"
replies the farmer.  "It cross-pollinates with the wind, you see, so when
I give some of my good seed to my neighbors, the benefits come back
to me at the next harvest."

This corny (sorry!) story has a grain (double-sorry) of truth in it that
applies directly to open source.  I'm a little worried that the important
points being made by both Fred S and Bruce P won't get lost in their
cross-fire, which is that bringing in some of the big hitters in the
software biz, like Apple and Novell, can be beneficial *without* 
ulterior motives.

Of course, things get more complicated when the seed companies get
taken over by the genetic engineering folks.  Did I ever tell you about
my idea to open-source genetic code?  But I digress . . .

phred