The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs

Re:The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech la... by kmacdough on Saturday June 07, 2025 @01:38PM (#44211179)

I could see it being inferred that way but, the way I read it, they are not meant as unilateral facts. Rather, they serve as rhetorical examples of where you might find contractors doing similar work, but where the one more in service of "public good" is taxed higher because it's open source. Strictly speaking, Windows bits are not all closed source and there exist closed source Linux bits. But it's not a point that really matters in the context of the conversation.

I think it's fair to use Windows and Linux as stand-ins for closed vs open source because it's a very accessible example. And knowing the technicalities clearly doesn't undermine the argument.

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Re:The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech la... by dataflow on Saturday June 07, 2025 @01:44PM (#44211217)

> I think it's fair to use Windows and Linux as stand-ins for closed vs open source because it's a very accessible example

We're talking about businesses here that would struggle with these tax rules. Which I guess is, mainly, contractors or startups. How common is it for them to write open-source drivers vs. closed-source ones? I would've imagined the majority of drivers in such cases are closed-source, on every platform. But I would find it interesting to hear if things are somehow different on Linux.

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Re:The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech la... by travisb on Sunday June 08, 2025 @12:05PM (#44217791)

Linux kernel drivers often end up being GPL'd, but out of tree. This is because Linux releases many very useful (and sometimes critical to the use-case!) functions behind a GPL-license API restriction. This is EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

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Re:The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech la... by dataflow on Sunday June 08, 2025 @12:12PM (#44217834)

Are you sure this is exactly what it means? You're basically saying that if I start hacking on a driver that consumes such an API tonight, I must release it as GPL somewhere publicly the moment I start consuming the API? I can't even work on it for a bit privately?

I'm surprised if so, because usually these sorts of licenses only apply if you're redistributing the code, not if you're just using it privately.

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Re:The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech la... by econ on Saturday June 07, 2025 @11:30PM (#44214361)

What would happen if closed source is [later] released as open?

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