Well, people AND companies do changes over time.

What I’m writing today was a total impossibility twenty years ago: I’m going to thanks Microsoft for releasing information under a liberal license:

Microsoft Releases 125 Million Building Footprints In the US To the OpenStreetMap Community – Slashdot

So today I can say: many kudos, Microsoft!

Let’s be realistic, companies are driven by profit. Companies cannot exist if they don’t make profit. Everyone need to make a profit from their work. It is right to make profit from your work.

Ok, they did it because they need to do this to battle giants like Google – or Baidu in China. I can’t blame them for their quest for profit, on the contrary I shall praise them for making it while benefitting the entire society – for a move like this benefits the entire society.

Of course the black night is not entirely redeemed. Their move is merely utilitarian. They will never release Windows or Office with a license like the Affero General Public License.

But I would really appreciate if they will make feasible for free-as-in-freedom operative systems to deal with EUFI secure boot which requires signed OS loaders.