Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Apple didn't have to give away webkit....but they did.
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They had to, as Khtml was already gpl2. It dictates that any derivative of a gpl2 work also becomes gpl2, with fully available source code. If I remember correctly.
In this case, with regarding to educational stuff, 'the market' will be mainly governments, and they are almost unanimously moving, or trying to move toward open standards and even open source to get out of all the lock-ins and regain independence of any company. Because of that, joining a new propietary standard at this point would be the stupidest thing to do.
With regard to the current textbook market: a government now deals with publishers X, Y, Z, and A. If one of them
[expletive deleted by moderation] in some way, they move to another one. (And maybe changing books in the process, or nave not; textbooks often are to be had with several, at least in the Netherlands.) If they do everything through Apple and the iPad, then Apple is the only publisher. Imagine Apple
[expletive deleted by moderation].... Bad situation, because the entire system will need to change *at once* if a government wishes to leave Apple. No government will take that risk.
In the end, open formats will always come out on top, because "everything with one vendor" is only convenient as long as you don't want to switch. As soon as you want to switch, it's a nuisance.
Edit: 50.000 Karma for Kovid, if I could. No way I could post that better.