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Way one: Fight it with your wallet. Don't buy DRM laden crap.

Agreed.

Way two: Write your congress critter.

Doesn't work for non-U.S. citizens, unlikey to work for actual U.S. citizens either.

Way three: Ignore the mainstream media.

Totally unrealistic. While I certainly cannot comprehend the attraction people have
towards Justin Timberlake, it is totally unreasonable to expect people to follow
different performers in order to make a political statement.

Way Four: Let China save us from our own capitalist overlords. What people in the
DRM debate a failing to recognise is that there is absolutely no way in
"The Hell Of Being Cut to Pieces"
that the Chinese are going to allow themselves to be dictated to by the likes of
apple and Microsoft. Don't forget all this crap has "Made In China" stamped all
over it. You can bet your bottom dollar that they will make hardware that has no
built-in DRM that is capable of running Linux perfectly well.

In fact they are already doing it

Definitely a good decision if there is going to be a shortage (at the start) of these products in the developing countries. reportedly enough for some to sell on the "gray-market"
(Bletsas acknowledges that some abuse is inevitable. "Will some parents sell their children's laptops on the gray market? Sure." ) source
Yes this is only initially, but if the children that these laptops are designed for are missing out because some random wants to play with it in his apartment along with his 2 pc's his other laptop, his pda and 3 game consoles something is seriously amiss, regardless of how much he pays for it.

Do you have any links or citations that quotes Bletsas as saying this?

Yes, it's in the article. http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/200701090 2326NWHWEV

My concerns about the software are really about the UI and applications. As I understand it, these are almost entirely new. I'm sure the OS will be fine since it is based on mature technology as you say. However, someone has pointed out that I can try out the whole thing right now using code from http://laptop.org/ - I'll do that before posting any more concerns which are only based on second hand information.

linked

He's coined terms you and I take for granted (Open Source?)....

I believe that was actually Christine Peterson, though ESR was at the summit.

OSS certainly would have had a much more up-hill fight without a little moderation by the likes of ESR....

In my mind, ESR stopped any pretense of showing moderation in 1999. See Communist China adopts Linux? and Surprised By Wealth. Uncoincidentally, he stopped speaking for me that same year.

He's coined terms you and I take for granted (Open Source?)....

I believe that was actually Christine Peterson, though ESR was at the summit.

OSS certainly would have had a much more up-hill fight without a little moderation by the likes of ESR....

In my mind, ESR stopped any pretense of showing moderation in 1999. See Communist China adopts Linux? and Surprised By Wealth. Uncoincidentally, he stopped speaking for me that same year.

Yeah, everyone knows you should call them MicroDRMPushingKenyanStarvingBastardSSoft.

They SS should be in Gothic script too, to remind people that they are NAZIS!

Make sure you use a GPL bdf Gothic font too, because all Truetype fonts are made from the blood of Kenyan babies!

Microsoft has just taken a while to get it. See reason four.

If Microsoft is doing this to boost their next Office, they are going to be surprised by the number of people who migrate to Open Office. Really, these kinds of screw ups are nails in their coffin.

http://www.linuxtoday.com/it_management/2003061301 126NWSVLL

You have to remember that Sun changes its mind on whether Linux is good or evil every few months, just like they cancel then resurrect Solaris x86 periodically. This was a few flips back. Don't bet your business on Sun following through on their promises... however, this is getting quite a lot better. Actions like putting Java under the GPL are not just cool, they're pretty irreversible. They're considering making Solaris GPL too... were that to happen, both Solaris and Linux would get much better very quickly, and I would never say anything bad about Sun again. I swear!

There was a bit in there about a way of handling GPL violators who want to be able to redistribute again. According to Stallman, this is because when you redistribute without following the terms of the GPL, you lose any further right you have to distribute it, even if you comply with the GPL later on. In the article, he says he's not sure where the idea originated, but I suspect it's somewhere in the KDE camp, as this is where the idea that you need "forgiveness" from the copyright holder was first seen. The "cure" proposal would be a way of granting that forgiveness automatically.

What position has he "long coveted?"

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/0 8/16/2056252

The answer to that question is here, in Bradley Kuhn's own words. Namely, the authority to deny anyone the right to use any license other than the GPL itself...including more liberal licenses such as the BSD license.

I don't care whether you personally have swallowed Stallman's bullshit about *why* the GPL should be the only license in existence. That itself is irrelevant. The point is that the FSF's perspective is that they should be the ones to arbitrarily make the decision, and not programmers themselves. IMHO, there is no defense or justification for that...it's control, pure and simple. Microsoft on the one hand want to use DRM to control how you use applications...Stallman and the FSF want to control which licenses you can or can't use in order to write them. The only difference is the point at which said control is applied. The result is the same; namely that as either the author or user of a program, you're denied the right to decide how it is to be used. I consider the GPL itself to be a form of *legal* "digital rights management," as far as programmers themselves are concerned.

Perhaps you're sufficiently naive as to believe that that in itself is still justifiable. After all, the GPL itself gives people a lot of rights, even if the FSF has enshrined itself as the arbiter/definer of them, right?

The problem with that idea is that there also is no guarantee that the GPL itself would remain the same, either...GPL v3 proves that. Again, you're going to argue that in protesting DRM in the license, Stallman isn't doing anything wrong...but again, you would be missing the point.

The point is that it is the FSF or Stallman himself who is making moral and legal choices for vast numbers of other people. I don't care how desirable said choices themselves might seem to be...in wanting to make them, he is wanting to deny me a couple of extremely basic rights. The first is the right to choose my own moral/philosophical framework, at least as far as socioeconomics and computer software is concerned. The second is far worse...he seeks to deny people the right to determine how the product of their own minds is used, which includes denying people whose sole or primary skillset is programming related to earn a living (that is, basically the economic ability to feed themselves) through the use of their abilities. I'm not misguided on this last point, either. Go here.

In response to that, you're then going to say that if I don't use Linux, he can't actually deny me anything at all. To which I'd reply, Not yet. Although it's true that he doesn't have the legal framework to enforce the above yet, the link I just gave describes the scenario that would exist if/when he actually manages to get it. If it got to that point, it'd no longer be optional or consentual, or based on whether you were using Linux or something else. Nobody would be able to write software for any environment or any platform without being subjected to the legal manifestation of his will. If you want to know what I believe he wants, then that is it...More than anything else, he wants *everyone* who either uses or develops software in any form to be legally or morally answerable to him. Microsoft want and have wanted an economic monopoly on software; Stallman now wants a moral, ideological, and legal one.

Stallman and his camp have gone rogue. There are some of us who think he probably was to begin with, although I'm not necessarily one of them. I believe his original intent was quite probably to do genuine good. Unfortunately, human nature has been shown historically to be an extremely morally frail thing. You prob

As Pine is not free software, time to move on to mutt or its next-gen friend, mutt-ng. No need to use a bloated GUI app to read mail.

As for what "pine" means, here is the truth: "Pine Is Not Enough".

Actually, Microsoft does have a history of attacking Linux and the open source community.

Further, their dubious business practices are well known. They have been fined by the US, EU, and South Korea.

See:
Microsoft declares war on free software model
Microsoft takes potshots at (Embedded) Linux
Microsoft launches attack on open source software
Open-source vendors respond to Microsoft 'attack

Linux is RedHat's core business.

About the Novell/Microsoft inter cooperation agreement?

http://www.linuxtoday.com/it_management/2006110301 426NWMSNV
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 6-11-03-014-26-NW-MS-NV-0010

Robert M. Stockmann - Subject: sad Outlook for Novell
( Nov 3, 2006, 02:46:50 )

"Novell has never had a foothold in the Desktop business, why would
Microsoft allow them to gain foothold on the Desktop market? If
linux is going to get a foothold in the Desktop Market, Microsoft
will make sure they are the ones supplying it. In this way their
agenda, whatever that maybe, can still be fullfilled.

1. Munich selects Linux on the desktop, with SuSE GMBH as native
support company in mind
2. Shortly after SuSE GMBH is bought up by Novell
3. Novell is remolding the SuSE desktop by making Gnome the
standard desktop and KDE the extra option. KDE is to be outphased.
see
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 5-11-04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0067

4. Microsoft officially endorses the 'Novell' version of the Linux
desktop, by funding it.
5. The 'Novell' Linux desktop is getting further adjustments to
get it Americanized, Microsoftized if you wish. Novell will be
doing all the hard labor.
6. Some BIG date will be set, after which 'Novell' (MS approved)
Linux Desktop is announced through Corporate Boards and CEO's as
the only one fit for corporate use in business. Other Linux distro
vendors will be put more and more in harms way to survive. They
will use the same arguing/advocacy like hey have used the mandatory
Outlook Agenda to have MS Exchange installed in businesses.
7. Novell Linux Desktop will in the end be able to fullfill all of
the overt and secret agenda wishes by Microsoft, or at least
hookups are available.
8. The Linux Desktop for use in business will become a new
Novell/Microsoft monopoly.
9. Microsofty will introduce a 'superior' Linux Desktop to
'Novell' Linux, and Novell will be forced out of the Desktop
Market, which is what Microsoft has always been aiming for.
10. Microsoft will starting hunting down other Linux related
commercial software companies and buy em out and destroy.

In short : Microsoft will like they have done many times: work
close with Novell, copycat essential gear from Novell linux into
Redmond Campus. When the time is right there will indeed be

Linux is RedHat's core business.

About the Novell/Microsoft inter cooperation agreement?

http://www.linuxtoday.com/it_management/2006110301 426NWMSNV
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 6-11-03-014-26-NW-MS-NV-0010

Robert M. Stockmann - Subject: sad Outlook for Novell
( Nov 3, 2006, 02:46:50 )

"Novell has never had a foothold in the Desktop business, why would
Microsoft allow them to gain foothold on the Desktop market? If
linux is going to get a foothold in the Desktop Market, Microsoft
will make sure they are the ones supplying it. In this way their
agenda, whatever that maybe, can still be fullfilled.

1. Munich selects Linux on the desktop, with SuSE GMBH as native
support company in mind
2. Shortly after SuSE GMBH is bought up by Novell
3. Novell is remolding the SuSE desktop by making Gnome the
standard desktop and KDE the extra option. KDE is to be outphased.
see
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 5-11-04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0067

4. Microsoft officially endorses the 'Novell' version of the Linux
desktop, by funding it.
5. The 'Novell' Linux desktop is getting further adjustments to
get it Americanized, Microsoftized if you wish. Novell will be
doing all the hard labor.
6. Some BIG date will be set, after which 'Novell' (MS approved)
Linux Desktop is announced through Corporate Boards and CEO's as
the only one fit for corporate use in business. Other Linux distro
vendors will be put more and more in harms way to survive. They
will use the same arguing/advocacy like hey have used the mandatory
Outlook Agenda to have MS Exchange installed in businesses.
7. Novell Linux Desktop will in the end be able to fullfill all of
the overt and secret agenda wishes by Microsoft, or at least
hookups are available.
8. The Linux Desktop for use in business will become a new
Novell/Microsoft monopoly.
9. Microsofty will introduce a 'superior' Linux Desktop to
'Novell' Linux, and Novell will be forced out of the Desktop
Market, which is what Microsoft has always been aiming for.
10. Microsoft will starting hunting down other Linux related
commercial software companies and buy em out and destroy.

In short : Microsoft will like they have done many times: work
close with Novell, copycat essential gear from Novell linux into
Redmond Campus. When the time is right there will indeed be

Linux is RedHat's core business.

About the Novell/Microsoft inter cooperation agreement?

http://www.linuxtoday.com/it_management/2006110301 426NWMSNV
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 6-11-03-014-26-NW-MS-NV-0010

Robert M. Stockmann - Subject: sad Outlook for Novell
( Nov 3, 2006, 02:46:50 )

"Novell has never had a foothold in the Desktop business, why would
Microsoft allow them to gain foothold on the Desktop market? If
linux is going to get a foothold in the Desktop Market, Microsoft
will make sure they are the ones supplying it. In this way their
agenda, whatever that maybe, can still be fullfilled.

1. Munich selects Linux on the desktop, with SuSE GMBH as native
support company in mind
2. Shortly after SuSE GMBH is bought up by Novell
3. Novell is remolding the SuSE desktop by making Gnome the
standard desktop and KDE the extra option. KDE is to be outphased.
see
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 5-11-04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0067

4. Microsoft officially endorses the 'Novell' version of the Linux
desktop, by funding it.
5. The 'Novell' Linux desktop is getting further adjustments to
get it Americanized, Microsoftized if you wish. Novell will be
doing all the hard labor.
6. Some BIG date will be set, after which 'Novell' (MS approved)
Linux Desktop is announced through Corporate Boards and CEO's as
the only one fit for corporate use in business. Other Linux distro
vendors will be put more and more in harms way to survive. They
will use the same arguing/advocacy like hey have used the mandatory
Outlook Agenda to have MS Exchange installed in businesses.
7. Novell Linux Desktop will in the end be able to fullfill all of
the overt and secret agenda wishes by Microsoft, or at least
hookups are available.
8. The Linux Desktop for use in business will become a new
Novell/Microsoft monopoly.
9. Microsofty will introduce a 'superior' Linux Desktop to
'Novell' Linux, and Novell will be forced out of the Desktop
Market, which is what Microsoft has always been aiming for.
10. Microsoft will starting hunting down other Linux related
commercial software companies and buy em out and destroy.

In short : Microsoft will like they have done many times: work
close with Novell, copycat essential gear from Novell linux into
Redmond Campus. When the time is right there will indeed be

In case you're keeping score, here are the latest standings:
In Theory/In the Wild
Windows: 114,000/114,000
Linux: 863/0
OS X: 1/0
source

Whoops ; Here are the examples I meant to include in my previous post.

Venezuela[1], Brazil[2], Extremadura and other regions of Spain[3], New Zealand[6], Bulgaria & Madeconia[4], and China[5], India. Development is often a worldwide effort, much like academic research.

For example, while I have only done a little FLOSS development, I've never met any of my collaborators in person.
    Thailand Cities: Vienna, Munich, Geneva, Bergen[7]. Peru, Paris:almost.

[1] http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08 -30-011-26-NW-LL-PB
[2] http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26006
[3] http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8485 - Good Read.
[4] http://www.foss.bg/news.php?id=2
[5] http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20031117S0015
[6]
[7] http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/13/t13_2.php

Somebody please send Europe copies of this letter,
the one that Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nunez made Open, to the people of Peru, April 8, 2002. His arguments are still unbeaten, and most still apply to any democratic government.

I was speaking on the general state of windows computing. Currently under XP this can happen if you're not careful what you check. I had someone ask me about this just yesterday. MS isn't known for admitting they screwed up and backtracking on something like that. If they have, great, but the fact of the matter is they already went down that road. Its just proof that they have no problem testing the waters with highly restrictive DRM.

I'll check that out next time I boot my XP to play The Sims 2 (Currently gives me some minor graphical glitches in Vista RC2 that I haven't bothered investigating). If you would be so gracious as to provide proof positive that Microsoft did make copy protection the default for MP3s in any iteration of Windows Media Player that made it to XP, please let me know since I'm going to be so gracious as to provide links to you that you requested.

and I doubt they form 51% or more of MS customer base.

So we only care about the majority of users with something that's entirely optional. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to provide all these tools for creating your own music, video, whatever with tools that come with Vista, and instead of making it easy on content creators large or small, we decide to instead tell them that they need to go elsewhere for that when it's trivial to implement? That makes no business sense.

As for your education, here you go oh lazy one:

on DRM in KPDF

Re: DRM-crippled Banshee has no copyleft protection

Torvalds: "DRM is Perfectly OK with Linux

Linux and DRM - succeeding where MS failed?

The RIAA - Hollywood - DRM - Linux Suicide Pact

GStreamer to support DRM

Daniel Robbins becomes a Gentoo Developer again.

Welcome back.

Linux runs cooler than other operating systems, because it tends to halt for short periods when it has nothing else to do."

Apple iTunes Store has been selling DRM music for several years now. And the world is still here. People love their iPods and their DRM music.

Linux Tvorvalds has said, "I want to make it clear that DRM is perfectly ok with Linux!" http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2003042401126O SKNLL>

Basically, mainstream America is fine with DRM. Implemented properly, it's a reasonable part of a solution to a the real problem of widescale IP theft.

My viewpoint may be one standard deviation off of normal Slashdot opinion, but this IS where mainstream America is.

Advertising isn't bad when it's something you're interested in and not "click the monkey" in your face flash (love flashblock). I don't block Google's ads (love adblock) simply because they're not obtrusive. The only time an ad was so bad that I have never returned to the site was when I was visiting a so-called Linux Site and the entire right margin is a Microsoft ad. Talk about skewed advertising.

most of our exciting free applications are only available for Windows!

What, you mean like Picasa?

Or maybe you mean Google Earth.

No, not native. But in the process they are contributing back to Wine. So you get Google apps in Linux and Wine is improved in the process. Sounds good to me.

According to Brian Proffitt on Linux Today, when asked if additions to WINE could help porting Google Earth, DiBona said that Google Earth uses Qt and GL and so additional WINE support would not help.

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=200 3-12-12-020-26-OS-CD-CY-0003/

"If you still insist on flaming me, you should know that I have powerful friends in Washington, Beijing and Moscow."

Said Mr Wallace. Scary! Why would someone who Sues against the GPL be a member of the FSF? What a complete, total, utter MORON!

Remember this quote from Scott Mcnealy a few years back?

Primary reason is that it's a ploy by Microsoft to discredit open source (Google for "Baystar" to learn more). Even though the case has no merit, they want to plant a bug in the ear of every PHB out there. "Doesn't Linux have some kinda legal trouble?" In that light, they have been successful somewhat.

Secondary reason, it's a stock scam. The longer they keep the company going, the longer they can bilk the shareholders for more cash. It's probably one of the most blatant examples of insider trading ever, but since it's small potatoes it has somehow flown under the radar. Here's hoping that changes soon.

Last year that was a link to a blog entry called "Brazil: the hearth of FOSS" on LinuxToday talking about Brazil standing behind Linux and the good that it was doing to the poor neighborhoods. So I decided to post a comment on it, the first one actually, saying the same thing you said it here. Amazed me that most people just didn't really understand a thing about what goes on or what they really need in those poor neighborhoods.

I see, I thought you were talking about the transition away from the non-free FreeQt license, when you were really talking about the transition from QPL to GPL; my bad.

The switch from FreeQt to QPL was much more important then the later switch to the GPL. I mistakenly believed that RMS's involvement, ended at this point, but I was wrong.

The difference with respect to X is this, RMS and others felt the QPL was causing some serious practical problems for the free software community, hence effort was expended to asking Trolltech to switch. Ironically, RMS was involved in the QPL debate to help with a practical problem, whereas suggesting a licensing change for X would be more about the general philosophy of copyleft. ( Why Copyleft?, What is Copyleft.)

The "I'm not even going to bother to talk to them I'm just going to insult them from afar with very emotive language until they use my own personal license" approach

Well, apparently he did talk to them. I have not seen any insults in any of his posts on the issue.

Dance around in a tutu and videotape it to get attention, too. The difference is that I have self-respect, as do the KDE developers.

You obviously haven't heard of wonderful people like mosfet and martin konold (and the gnome-support.de case). Or some wonderful FUD from Kurt Pfeifle. Examples out of the top of my head.

The only difference is that most of the KDE nutcases (to be fair, as numerous as gnome's nutcases) haven't got as much repercussion in the news as gnome developers working for stablished companies.

Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying [linuxtoday.com] Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications [kde-apps.org].

You call that FUD? Do you even know what FUD is, even though you're doing it right now? The Ximian ads didn't say KDE eats babies.

But hey, now you've demonstrated you have a clear bias and have no interest on defending freedom in software. You just want to slander a project because a company helping its development paid google ads for search terms related to your beloved desktop.

Get a life.

Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:

Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer

to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.

Blah, blah, blah. Changelog from Amarok 1.4beta-2:

Equalizer for the GStreamer-0.10 engine

And juk, kaffeine, kiss and more are listed here. Go to their webs and notice they have a GST backend too, it's not an invention on the gstreamer page.

About your wonderful phonon that will save everyone from evil gstreamer, there's no guarantee that it will be used in KDE 4. Hell, it's not even sure it will ever be finished, since it's another product of the NIH syndrome some paranoid KDE hackers seem to suffer ("gstreamer is used in gnome! let's not use it although many KDE apps already proved it's worthy!").

P.S.: Thanks for the link to the gnome google ads news. Read here:

Ximian CEO Defends Google AdWords Campaign, Will Not Create New Ads

Noting the past history of the the KDE and GNOME organizations, Friedman said the ads are "not the first volley over the wall", citing an incident in 1999 where Friedman and Ximian co-founder Miguel de Icaza purchased the "gnome-support.com" domain preparatory to launching a company centered around professional support and services for the GNOME desktop (what eventually became Ximian). According to Friedman, within weeks of purchasing the domain, KDE developer Martin Konold purchased "gnome-support.de" and redirected traffic to the KDE web site. Though Konold still owns the domain, it no longer redirects to KDE's pages.

You know, thanks to zealots and brainless fanboys like you, cases like those two ones are easy to find on the two projects. So let's stop the FUD flinging, huh?

...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.

Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.

Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.

Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:

Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer

to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.

you know, just the other day I was browsing Linux Today and somehow i found myself reading the ever useful "get the facts" ad (right-hand corner). one of success stories was "RadioShack Saves Millions of Dollars by Choosing Windows Over Linux". and now there's a 62% drop in fourth quarter net income. yet another company "helped" by microsoft, methinks... :-D

I am probably just an old idealist but so is RMS.

It sounds to me more like you're simply an old advocate of RMS, since what you're saying here is his worldview, pretty much word for word.

FOSS, GNU and Linux is about the right to choose, a right wich is very limited outside the FOSS community.

Stallman is not about a choice at all. He cannot tolerate the idea of anyone using any other license whatsoever. This is an example of what I'm talking about, in his own words. This is another good article which illustrates what I'm talking about, in terms of his attitude towards making a living from software development.

In his mind however, it is his way or the highway, and I believe that this and the above attitude are also part of the reason why the BSDs aren't more popular; Stallman has succeeded in alienating many people from them, simply because the people producing them don't adhere to his decrees. I am glad Linus is finally putting some kind of conscious, deliberate thought as to whether or not to stay on this man's bandwagon any longer...it is something that should have been done a very long time ago.

On the surface, Stallman is very good at making his arguments sound compelling...it's only when you look beneath the surface that you start to discover that his motives aren't anywhere near as pure as they initially seem to be.

Part of the DRM clause I think. Plus Linus has no problem with DRM in the kernel, something GPLv3 adamantly opposes (and quite possibly may be set up to directly oppose, oooh the drama). So of course he isn't going to use GPLv3.

Discussion over GPLv3 has been going on for quite some time now even though the draft has just now emerged. He has mentioned a few things, one is that he has no problem with DRM in the kernel, whereas GPLv3 is Anti-DRM. Also Linus opposed having his developers have to make their private keys available, which was stated in the article.

I think he's thought it though, and I think the decision makes sense. No one says you have to increment from GPLv2 to GPLv3, it is at your option. RMS make the license more restrictive, too restrictive, therefore Linus said no.

There is a story on Linux Today that Microsoft has almost completed the purchase of Opera Software. Darn.

copied from here:

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2005-11 -04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0089

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2005-11 -04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0089
there are other exact same posts around the web.
nice try FUDster.

You know I read your rant/article about gnome some time ago, posting it into random stories as comment doesn't make it any better ... http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2005-11 -04-018-26-OP-SS-NV-0089

Nice Job, Whore.

If Joseph McCarthy was still alive, he would have personally seen to it that you were declared a commy.

On a serious note: sad to see that there are still people who take the same rhetoric as McCarthy to ban open source to the realm of Evil, while at the same time most likely profiting from its innovations.
Money is probably the only thing that this person cares for, next to the knowledge that he has the power to control his IPs.
I'd much rather be called a commy, socialist or IP-vandal than defending the remarks these people make.
But, as pro-IP lobbyists are using open-source, open-source lobbyists are using IP (albeit on a scale restricted to IP for those using IP themselves) and creating IP-related technologies.

For us to actually get any further without intellectual property, is to ban it altogether from the open-source movement.

Its sad to say, but that is most unlikely to happen in the polarized (software) world we find ourselves in today.

the eweek article has a few very interesting lines, quoting and paraphrasing Greg Mancusi-Ungaro (novell director of marketing for linux and open source -- ex-ximian, for those who need this info to judge the guy's credibility).

'As for the Evolution e-mail client, "this is a stable, mature product, so we are redeploying its developers to other more strategic projects." However, "It also has a lot of community support, and we plan to leverage it with other e-mail programs like Hula." Novell is making one large strategic change. The GNOME interface is going to become the default interface on both the SLES (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Novell Linux Desktop line. (....) "The entire KDE graphical interface and product family will continue to be supported and delivered on OpenSuSE," said Mancusi-Ungaro.'

Verdict: Mancusi-Ungaro is a clever marketing droid. most slashdot readers would easily fall prey to him.

looks like mark shuttleworth had a good gut feeling about including kubuntu into his realm. now that novell shuts down their complete line of desktop and workstation products [ http://linuxtoday.com/it_management/2005110401826O PSSNV ] he's the new kid on the block. he even announced at the ubuntu conference that he switched his personal desktop to kubuntu [ http://www.kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-commitmen t.php ] already.

instead of novell's silly shareholders (who drive management to mimic redhat in order to) succeed catch up with the first player on the linux server market, they are now challeneged by a newcomer with a complete offering in his portfolio: rock solid server foundation (debian), and two fully supported desktop environments (ubuntu for gnome, kubuntu for kde).

sweet alternative!

i'll certainly consider this platform now. we have 5 SUSE sles servers running our business, and we have about 120 suse 9.2 kde desktop workstation systems. we are currently evaluating nomachine nx and freenx to switch the workstations to thin clients accessing a loadbalanced dual-node desktop application server. gnome sucked here completely -- kde with its kiosk lockdown mode shines.

i'm sure I can realize this with debian and/or kubuntu too.

novell goes down the same road they went down with dr-dos, word-perfect and netware. what their management touches turns to shit.

farewell! this time forever.

MS Office also had support for WordPerfect files. If you want to have the leading Office software you must have support for your competition. OpenOffice has support for Word documents so it comes as no suprise that MS would do the same.

Hello, my name is Rudimentary Software Marketplace Strategy and Economics. It's good to meet you.

Let me tell you a few things about myself, for I am a complex, varying sort.

For instance, if I'm an underdog trying to get into a new market, then I'll do everything I can to advocate and embrace "openness", be it support for all types of files, standardization, and so on. I'll beseach the big boys to open up, for the good of all consumers, and allow for a dynamic, competitive marketplace.

For instance let's say I'm an underdog in the instant messaging marketplace, I might say "Come on everyone, let's just be friends and work with open standards!".

Now if I'm successful with this scheme - hopefully really successful - by making it easy for other people to switch to my product, then I move to stage 2 - lock in. This is where I start doing whatever I can to ensure that someone else doesn't do to me what I did to them. I'll embrace and hide behind proprietary standards, I'll make it a bitch for people using different clients, not only technically but via FUD, and I'll constantly move the target to ensure that no one can catch up. Maybe I'll add a "conversion screw-up-ifier" to make sure that the user of more standard formats is an imperfect, painful experience.

1. It's hard to pin down how many Linux installations there are, let alone users (or desktop installs.) But, people are trying.
   
   
2. It's hard to find the fraction of Linux users that play games. Some work can be done to estimate that.
   
   
3. Given some (probably unreasonable) estimates of the above, however, you can figure it out yourself.
   
   
4. Whatever the customer base for a Linux WoW, it has come a long way.
   

I say bring them on Dell, HP. You might have found a way to make me (and many other geeks) customers again.