Fun facts, the author of rsync, Andrew Tridgell, is also the one who reverse-engineered Microsoft SMB that laid the foundation for Samba [1].
How he did manage to avoid lawsuits from Microsoft is beyond me.
[1] Server Message Block:
How he did manage to avoid lawsuits from Microsoft is beyond me.
[1] Server Message Block:
MS probably chose not to shut down that effort on the basis that it was enabling the MS stack in Linux.
I wish I could dig up an internal presentation that was prepared in the 90s for Bill Gates at the time, which evaluated the threat posed by Linux to Microsoft. I think they were probably happy that Linux now had a reason to talk to Windows machines.
Then they realized interoperability could make them more money, and they invited him and his team to Redmond for a week of working with MS engineers to understand the latest protocol versions. Oh wait, no, it was because the EU forced them. https://www.theregister.com/2007/12/21/samba_microsoft_agree...
Similar with header files. Issues arise if there is a "misuse" to derive actually not a compatible but competing solution.