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Distributing and maintaining closed-source applications you have to pre-compile it into a binary distribution, and therefore in the ideal case you want to develop towards a set of standards. Currently there is no prevailing standard base which secures compatibility among Linux distributions, and therefore a company have to create individual binaries for every distribution it supports (which has it's own unique package set). The fact that there is no standard package set create dependency hell and often leads to many vendors just supporting one distribution or a version of that distribution. Fortunately there is an effort called the LSB (Linux Standard Base) which aims to develop and promote a set of standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant system. It seems like the LSB is slowly getting foothold in the Debian camp, but it is currenly unclear how much interest it will generate in the rpm-crowd (Mandrake, SUSE, Red Hat etc). Even if the standard is not adopted by SUSE and Red Hat, it has the prospect of unifying the Debian-based distributions so that Linux can collect a substantial amount of users on only three distribution-platforms. Proprietary software vendors has shown themselves willing to support three Linux-distribution bases.

Now, the licensing issues for proprietary vendors to develop towards the Linux standards also needs to be clear and easy to understand. Even though the plurality of open-source licenses gives the developers a good choice, it takes quite an effort to wade through the implications of all of them. I am not saying that closed-source platforms does not involve this problems, what I am saying is that on a platform like Windows you can (through paying a bunch load of money) acquire a commercial license, which can be really difficult for some GPLed projects. The problem with a library under the GPL-license is that it does not clearly define *exactly* what a derivative work is, which is left up to a whim to be interpreted by anyone, and since GPL has a viral nature a proprietary software vendor can not risk that his application will be defined as a derivate work. For instance Trolltech recommends that commercial vendors use it's alternative commercial Qt license while developing closed-source software. We have often heard about the Windows licensing hell, but this is often interpreted as licensing hell by the lawyers of proprietary software-vendors. Fortunately the Linux Standard Base addresses these problems by requiring that any package included in the LSB should be free to use for anyone to develop towards. The LGPL is a license which satisfies this criteria while still protecting the work itself from being ripped off by commercial vendors keeping the changes they have made to a LGPL project for themselves. It should be up to the devoper(s) to choose which license the software should be developed under (GPL, LGPL and proprietary).

Linux has the prospect of ma

No more like Flashline where they try and match clients with developers. Not an idea that took off. End users do not have the remotest use or interest in this type of service and its much more practical for small companies to develop symbiotic relationships with small software houses/individual developers rather then mix and match software from God knows where that leads to more complex solutions and gives developers the upper hand in deals.

Personally I think its a pretty naive approach to an idea that has been shown not to work. Accepting the level of mediating responsibility discussed in the article is just asking to be sued into the ground.

Flashline is a company built around this idea. It's not integrated with CASE so to speak, but they are thinking along similar lines.

If only there were better docs...

there are.

Remember this is from nasa.gov

Not *just* NASA. It's on a gov't site, but the other project involved is FMARS, which is private. It isn't all tax dollars at work, so I suppose that justifies the departure from the usual NASA drollness. Non-profits can't afford not to have a sense of humor.

I think what's interesting are the shotgun classes. :-)

FMARS is the Flashline Mars Analog Research Station, which is a project of The Mars Society (Flashline is the name sponsor for the mission). It is a simulated Mars base. There is an article about it in the print version of this month's Scientific American.

This is one of The Mars Society's projects for establishing a human presence on Mars. There will be a series of these simulated bases placed in analogous Mars environments throughout the world. The first is on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. The next will be placed in the American Southwest. Currently it is on exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors' Center. It will begin its field season this September in the desert.

Additionally, The Mars Society has a prototype pressurized Mars rover program. It also has a trust fund established to raise money for a privately funded mission to establish a permanent presence on Mars. It may take a century or two of saving, but The Mars Society will *do* it.

As a senior developer in a Java shop, one of the things I often ask interviewees is what they would miss most if forced to use C++ instead of Java. Anyone who answers anything other than 'the libraries' gets a big black mark next to their name in my book.

It's you who deserves a big black mark on your face. Java beans achieves the concept of reusability, as they can be created and redistributed like blackboxes - it's especially important to commercial and enterprise usage. Take a look at some java factories like Flashlines, they sell individual java beans which can be used on any platforms and any development environment. EJB, Servlet, and RMI etc. are hardly merely 'libraries', they are integrated parts of Java, and you just can't ignore their importance. A Java app developed on personal java 1.1 can run on any mobile devices compliant with this jvm, without recompilation.

I really doubt someone with such an insight and knowledge in Java could be a senior developer in a Java shop...or you are simply a troll?