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I just came across this short article by ESR over at NewsForge.
From the article: ... But it's also deeply stupid to piss off that community like this, unless you think you're never going to have to hire programmers again. SCO is behaving as though it thinks its IP portfolio is the only asset it has left.

Sorry if this already has been posted. Havn't seen it here though.

Try this link if you want to read the NewsForge article and all the comments in nested mode, to minimize click-throughs:
SCO follows David Hannum's 'sucker' theory in lawsuit against IBM

You mean like this?

slashdot.org
newsforge.com
theregister.co.uk
my university's daily newspaper (no link!)
fark.com
the smirking chimp
dr. fun
the daily vault (although i review there once in a while)
google news
daily rotten
lwn.net
crackmonkey archives
the dot
kde-look.org
corona's coming attractions
snopes' update page
doc's weblog

And I think that's about it for a daily basis.

Hey, Timothy, did you forget to link to the story?

The newsforge article is here. Or perhaps they are saving the URL to tomorrows dupe about it.

Another poster mentioned that oracle is pushing linux in a big way, so I assume that handles the software.

Here's the hardware: SGI's altix. Each linux OS image can scale to 64 processors and 512 Gigs of physical RAM. These images can then be clustered, to "span terabytes of global shared memory". Prices start at $70k for 4 CPUs and 36G RAM, and go to $1.2M for 64 CPUs.

Sun's hardware is about four times as expensive.

Thanks should go to NYLXS, a non-profit organization made up of individuals from the community that provide solutions to small and large business problems of software licensing fees, restrictive code agreements, and abusive auditing tactics.

It was the membership of NYLXS who rented a van and left NYC at 4 am on July 17, 2002 to attend the Commerce Committee "roundtable" on drm, where the odds were stacked against the public at around 22 to 1 according to reporters covering the event. It was individuals within the organization, and friends from other organizations with similar goals, who stood up and said, enough! to the load of bull being put forth by Mr. Jack Valenti and his cronies at that "roundtable". Had it not been for the actions taken on this day, and for the media response, and for the Commerce Committee's damage control (one staff member was quoted as saying "we've never had anything like this happen here before", and the Commerce Committee's damage control response resulting in an invitation to sit down and talk with them, all covered in Newsforge and many other netzine articles), had it not been for NYLXS's actions, the drm legislation was being steamrolled through Congress, and had good momentum. It was stopped in its tracks that day, and the result was it was killed for the year, since the elections came soon after and the legislation was tabled.

Thanks should go to the NYLXS membership who protested Dmitri's imprisonment regularly in NYC while he was imprisoned half way around the world from his home and family.

Thanks should go to NYLXS who are putting on business demonstrations showing that open source works for business. Business demos held in NYC, and in Queens, NY. Business demos that are widely attended. Business demos that are recorded and can be heard at the link above if you download the audio files.

Thanks should go to the NYLXS educational arm, the Free Software Institute, that provides the training to individuals and companies, in open source and free software operating systems, tools, and applications that make individuals more productive, less reliant on others, and provide true cost savings and reliability.

Thanks should go to the members of NYLXS that meet with local legislators both at home in NYC, and in our nation's capitol, and let their views be understood, their voices heard on free and open source software, on the DMCA, on drm, and other relevant issues.

Thanks should go to the members of NYLXS that sacrifice their time, and keep the gears turning behind the scenes to make sure that NYLXS functions as it should, according to its charter.

NYLXS is a non-profit organization that puts earnings from its Free Software Institute back into free and open source software promotion, issues, and problems. Installfests (where you can bring your computer and receive assistance in getting a gnu/linux distribution legally installed on your computer) are just one area where NYLXS members help to promote free and open source software.

While NYLXS can receive donations that are tax-deductible due to its non-profit status, the NYLXS organization prides itself in being doers, not watchers. Membership is open to people who share the organization's ideals and goals, but as stated, this isn't a join and do nothing organization. Members are required to actively participate in the organization. It may take a little while, but normally, new members listen, find some project, issue, mission, within the organization that they like, and then run with it. It is a testament to the diversity of views of the organization that enables such effective and motivated participation on the part of its members. And it is this motivated participation that enables NYLXS to succeed in its mission, and to effectively communicate its message to others curious about what free and open source software is all about.

Thank you NYLXS!

Thanks should go to NYLXS, a non-profit organization made up of individuals from the community that provide solutions to small and large business problems of software licensing fees, restrictive code agreements, and abusive auditing tactics.

It was the membership of NYLXS who rented a van and left NYC at 4 am on July 17, 2002 to attend the Commerce Committee "roundtable" on drm, where the odds were stacked against the public at around 22 to 1 according to reporters covering the event. It was individuals within the organization, and friends from other organizations with similar goals, who stood up and said, enough! to the load of bull being put forth by Mr. Jack Valenti and his cronies at that "roundtable". Had it not been for the actions taken on this day, and for the media response, and for the Commerce Committee's damage control (one staff member was quoted as saying "we've never had anything like this happen here before", and the Commerce Committee's damage control response resulting in an invitation to sit down and talk with them, all covered in Newsforge and many other netzine articles), had it not been for NYLXS's actions, the drm legislation was being steamrolled through Congress, and had good momentum. It was stopped in its tracks that day, and the result was it was killed for the year, since the elections came soon after and the legislation was tabled.

Thanks should go to the NYLXS membership who protested Dmitri's imprisonment regularly in NYC while he was imprisoned half way around the world from his home and family.

Thanks should go to NYLXS who are putting on business demonstrations showing that open source works for business. Business demos held in NYC, and in Queens, NY. Business demos that are widely attended. Business demos that are recorded and can be heard at the link above if you download the audio files.

Thanks should go to the NYLXS educational arm, the Free Software Institute, that provides the training to individuals and companies, in open source and free software operating systems, tools, and applications that make individuals more productive, less reliant on others, and provide true cost savings and reliability.

Thanks should go to the members of NYLXS that meet with local legislators both at home in NYC, and in our nation's capitol, and let their views be understood, their voices heard on free and open source software, on the DMCA, on drm, and other relevant issues.

Thanks should go to the members of NYLXS that sacrifice their time, and keep the gears turning behind the scenes to make sure that NYLXS functions as it should, according to its charter.

NYLXS is a non-profit organization that puts earnings from its Free Software Institute back into free and open source software promotion, issues, and problems. Installfests (where you can bring your computer and receive assistance in getting a gnu/linux distribution legally installed on your computer) are just one area where NYLXS members help to promote free and open source software.

While NYLXS can receive donations that are tax-deductible due to its non-profit status, the NYLXS organization prides itself in being doers, not watchers. Membership is open to people who share the organization's ideals and goals, but as stated, this isn't a join and do nothing organization. Members are required to actively participate in the organization. It may take a little while, but normally, new members listen, find some project, issue, mission, within the organization that they like, and then run with it. It is a testament to the diversity of views of the organization that enables such effective and motivated participation on the part of its members. And it is this motivated participation that enables NYLXS to succeed in its mission, and to effectively communicate its message to others curious about what free and open source software is all about.

Thank you NYLXS!

if (freeSpeech==freeSoftware) {

allowSpeaker(Microsoft);

}

redhat shit

Is it me, or was anyone else really confused by the response by the Microsoft guy? They're there to "talk about Unix services"? Well, it makes more sense in terms of their Services for Unix. Incidentally, reading the page for SFU, it's good to see real Unixy stuff in Windows. (No, I don't think it will "take away" market from existing Unix products. (Windows + Korn shell) != FreeBSD. I admit to being a little leary about the prospect, but I don't see it happening.)

Anyone have any experience with this Services For Unix thing? I don't have access to Windows machines to run the trials on.

I'm still confused as to why they're at LWCE, when the webpage bills it as "the #1 place for companies that sell, market or promote Linux based products, services, applications and solutions," and they claim to have no plans whatsoever to sell, market, or promote Linux-based anything. I guess that leaves reasons for coming sowhere around building mindshare in the Linux world :3 Although the fact that they seem to be using GPLed utilities in their SFU is very interesting. (And perhaps their foot in the door.)

Disclaimer: this is not a Microsoft flame. I am not an anti-Microsoft junkie. Do please refrain from flaming if you want to reply.

I'm really suprised none of the linux zealots have mentioned this yet, but one of the best uses a school could have for an old PC is to rip out the hard drive, hook that sucker up to a network, and use it as an X terminal thin client with its display managed by a bigger backroom server.

This is much more reliable and effective than you might imagine. Over 10baseT, X is plenty fast. An old pentium is more than enough power for an X server (even a 486 works very nicely, with a decent vid card). Eight or 16 megs of ram is enough. For the server, to run basic office and net apps you need much less power than you think, because most of the time the processor is sitting idle (what you really need is ram). Plus, you get all the additional benefits of thin-clients in their easier administration and much lower TCO. No more running around to Windows (or even Linux) PCs all over the school--you can forget they exist.

This is already quite a popular way of doing things in cash-strapped schools, and it's growing.

Be evangelized.

The biggest deployment of this kind I know of is in Largo, Florida, with 400 terminals. See also here, and here, aw heck just Google.

LTSP is a very popular package for serving mini X server distros to storage-less PSs over a network.

Bill Gates assures people about the security of Microsoft products.
Summary: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is pledging to continue improvements to security in his company's products, part of a high-stakes campaign to convince large customers that Windows software is safe.

Nice timing, Bill.

Countries such as Mexico and Peru also took this stance. Realizing the threat posed by this, Microsoft flew out to these countries for talks with their governments and ended up handing out large amounts of cash, providing their education and software development sectors with free software worth millions of dollars. Although Microsoft would lose money short-term they would make money in the long run, a similar strategy to that of the Xbox. Software upgrades would ensure that Microsoft maintained their cash flow, and the threat of Linux would be significantly removed by the widespread use of Microsoft's proprietary protocols and file formats (locking users into Windows due to compatibility issues).

NewsForge.com reprinted an article from Pikeus. More information can be found here

Admittedly, I am unable to find anything which indicates closure to the Peruvian Congressional bill 1609, which proposes the use of Open Source Software. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that the issue is still open for debate. However, with the acceptance of $550,000 of donated goods from Microsoft, it looks as though Peru may have taken a softer view on Microsoft and their proprietary software

Wednesday January 22, 2003 - [ 08:18 PM GMT ] Print this Article
Topic - GNU/Linux

- By Robin 'Roblimo' Miller -
I'm posting this LinuxWorld missive a little after 2 p.m., and I'll add to the post later today and tonight. Since most specific product announcements are being covered by others or have companion press releases we're running verbatim, please check our NewsVac section for that kind of thing. In my show diary, I will give you personal impressions of what's going on here, and if you have any specific areas you'd like me to cover tomorrow and Friday, please let me know (through comments on this story). Update posted 11:10 p.m. Wednesday. See below...
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Financial Services are hot-hot

Two years ago a friend of mine thought a seminar or conference about Linux and Open Source for financial service companies -- like banks, stock brokerages, and mutual funds -- would be a good idea. It flopped. Today, at at LinuxWorld, there's a sign in front of the room where the first seminar in the "Financial Services Summit" is being held that says:

Due to overwhelming response, the LinuxWorld Financial Summits are first serve, first seated sessions

The place is full of managers and IT types from banks and brokerage houses, and IT consultants that cater to this industry. Part of this is no doubt the New York location -- the Jacob Javits Convention Center is only a 15 or 30 minute cab ride (depending on traffic) from Wall Street.

But you didn't see this crowd at previous New York LinuxWorlds. NewsForge readers have noticed articles about brokerage houses and banks adopting Linux. Well, just a few minutes ago a reporter from a New York daily newspaper was sitting at a computer next to the one I'm using in the show press room. I wasn't trying to be nosy, just stretching my back and neck a little, and I happened to notice that he was typing notes about Linux and Wall Street.

It looks like Linux is going to be be coming to a bank or brokerage near you Real Soon Now -- if it's not there already.

Why do I see so many "Start" buttons?

For some reason an awful lot of hardware vendors that push Linux on servers seem to feel it's just fine to have lots of Windows screens on the computers they use in their booths to run slide shows or demonstrate their products. Personally, I have always thought this was silly. I actually asked a booth person for a company I will not name, "Does this mean you show Linux desktops at Windows-oriented shows?"

The answer this person gave: "Well, our software runs on all platforms -- Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris... I'm a sales guy, not an engineer, so I don't know how to run Linux and I stick to Windows 'cause that's what I know."

At least HP had a laptop in their booth running Linux. Yes, folks, this is the first time I have seen a laptop in an HP booth with Linux on it -- or at least mostly on it; the person who brought it said its sound didn't work (with Red Hat 8.0, and he didn't care because he was only using it to demonstrate printers.)

All other laptops visible in the HP booth ran Windows. Desktops and server terminals were a mixed bag, with a majority of them running Linux.

We'll give IBM good marks here: they had more Linux visible on laptops and desktops than any other major hardware vendor I saw at the show.

Not only that, an IBM employee I know personally gave me quite a rant about how I (and other journalists) ought to badger the people in Microsoft's booth unmercifully. "They're only here to tear down Linux," my IBM buddy said. "They hate Linux. They want to ruin us all. They don't belong here."

Update @ 11:10 p.m. US EST

I walked around the show floor a bit, then went to an interview appointment with several Dell execs, then out to supper with some friends. Now I'm back in my hotel room, typing this...

Talking with Dell about Linux

My first real question boiled down to, "When will I be able to buy a reasonably-priced Dell laptop with Linux on it?"

Brent Schroeder, Dell's director of engineering and Linux strategy, said the company had already tried to sell laptops pre-loaded with Linux, and that they had sold poorly. I pointed out that they were high-priced laptops with many mandatory options, including a built-in three year service contract, rather than the low-cost units Linux users were likely to buy.

His second answer was that Dell's big problem with selling Linux laptops -- and desktops -- was that whichever distribution they chose, it seemed most customers wanted another one; that if they settled on Red Hat, they'd get calls for SuSE, you might say, and if they chose SuSE, they'd get screams about not offering Debian, and so on. All this more or less boiled down to Linux users not being able to make up their minds and all demand one distribution and set of software packages. When that happens, sure, Dell will talk about Linux, okay? If, that is, they see enough demand to make it worth their while.

Carol Gittinger, a Dell corporate marketing person, said she monitors online forums, including Slashdot "and responses on the news sites" to gauge the depth of Linux demand fo laptops and desktops from corporate customers. She allowed that she saw some demand, and was aware that many customers bought Dell computers and immediately installed Linux on them, but echoed Schroeder's comments about how it is impossible to please all Linux users all of the time, so Dell was not likely to start selling user-level Linux computers until there was more Linux standardization.

I suggested that Dell needn't support a dozen different Linux distributions, just make sure drivers were available, so perhaps they should just sell Linux-compatible hardware, if only so the sysadmins taking care of the Linux servers Dell is hot to sell could use Linux-loaded Dell products to administer them.

"Servers" is the big word for Dell at LinuxWorld, and they were happy to get the conversation back into an area they wanted to push instead of answering questions about laptops. So they spieled me about how Dell servers, running Linux, offer a superior value proposition. The words "focus" and "execute" were used more than once. They also used the phrase "proof points" -- a new one for me -- to describe what they thought conservative, mainstream companies wanted to see before they started going heavily with Linux, and they told me Dell considers 2003 the year Linux will become really and truly mainstream, now that early adopters have tested it and made sure it works in corporate mission-critical applications and have provided... here it comes... proof points that less adventurous managers can use as guidance when they consider Linux.

Since HP, IBM, and others also offer Linux servers and support for them, I kept asking the Dell people why theirs were better. They kept talking about their "value proposition," and mentioned that they offered a one-stop shop for hardware and software, direct from Dell, without going through distributors, anywhere in the world. I asked why an enterprise-level customer would want Linux support from Dell when IBM, HP, and Red Hat -- among others -- offer comprehensive Linux support and have well-known kernel hackers and other experts on their payrolls. The Dell answer was that Dell partners with -- among others -- Red Hat and Oracle to provide support, so theirs is as good as any, possibly better than most.

We kept coming back to the "value" discussion and talk of "meeting mass demand." I asked if this didn't mean, boiled down to its essence, waiting until IBM, Sun, HP, and any number of other hardware vendors established a market, then moving in and undercutting their prices. One of the two Dell PR people in the room rephrased this tactic as "broadening the market." Okay. Sounds better that way, so we'll let it stand.

Later, my friend Peter Gallagher of DevIS said he liked Dell's servers a lot and has bought a bunch of them. He said their support was the best he got from any hardware vendor. He said his people always removed Dell's preinstalled Red Hat immediately and installed Debian, so he had never gone to Dell for Linux support, only for help with hardware, so he couldn't really offer an opinion about their Linux tech support, just hardware stuff, where -- he noted again -- he considered them top-notch.

Anyway, besides keeping commercial server customers like Peter happy, Dell's Schroeder said they see a huge market helping corporate customers migrate from Unix to Linux, and that Dell has plenty of expertise in this area. I asked if -- for example -- Sun, an old-line Unix shop now moving into the Linux marketplace, might not be a better choice for Unix-to-Linux migration assistance. Schroeder trotted out the "value proposition" phrase again. Okay, fine. Dell sells for less. Let's just say so. Nothing wrong with that, right?

The Golden Penguin Bowl is still a kick

This has been a perennial LinuxWorld feature, and it's still fun even at a conference where most of the attendees are business people, not the "Geeks" and "Nerds" represented by the two Bowl teams engaged in a trivia contest somewhat like the TV show "The Weakest Link" except funnier and more warm-hearted, with Slashdot and TechTV star Chris DiBona (now vp of a new and very cool online gaming venture, Damage Studios) as host.

Chris is not thin-lipped and sarcastic, but warm and funny. I say this not only because he was one of our OSDN coworkers before he left to co-found Damage Studios. He's really a funny and interesting guy, totally in his element asking questions like which port is usually used by OpenSSL, and what "CSS" stands for when talking about DVDs.

Sadly, CEO keynotes now outdraw hacker-type features like The Golden Penguin Bowl at LinuxWorld. I mean, here we are with Slashdot founder Rob Malda (another funny guy, and I don't say this just because we work together, honest) as one of the judges, and a bunch of fine, fun-loving geeks and nerds as contestants, and the auditorium was less than half-full, but was packed earlier in the day when the corporate chiefs held forth.

That's enough for tonight. It's after 11 p.m. here in New York, time to hit the sack and get ready for another active LinuxWorld day tomorrow.

Post a new comment

Yep. Apparently Gael Duval was not entirely truthful with us. See today's NewsForge story about MandrakeSoft.

- Robin

Then, yesterday we get a Newsforge article completely denying it.

Now we hear this.

Mandrake certainly do seem to have issues with being honest with people. Plus I think they have a history of this, don't they?

This is kind of ironic conisdering the recent newsforge article, "Mandrake: Rumors of our imminent demise are just that".

... DRM seems to be more DRRM: Digital Rights Removal Mechanism.

I don't subscribe to RMS's GNUtopian vision.

But you *do* agree with him about Digital Restrictions Management, eh?

Bill Gates announced a line of MS wristwatches that receive email, stock quotes, sports scores, etc.

See my editorial related to this topic, rather than me saying the same thing here. :)

clarifications anyone?
by proclus on Wednesday December 18, @07:05PM EST

Sorry, I just couldn't let the story to out this way, because truth is important to me.

All machines that are currently supported will continue to be supported in their current configurations, so we are not pulling out the rug as it were. The situation could be better than this, but the ball is now in Apple's court. I will say that Apple has been moving in the right direction with respect to these issues over the past few years. If projects like ours can stay engaged with them, there may be a chance. It is not easy, and may be overly optimistic, but there it is. I'd like to give some time for Apple to respond.

The main source for the Apple/DMCA story is at the following link, although it has been covered extensively on the web as an 'Apple DMCA' googlesearch will reveal.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955805.html

Based on my experience with the Adobe boycott and other anti-DMCA activism, I consider Declan as a trusted source. Here are some good stories about the impact of the DMCA in general and on Apple users.

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-656.html# lnk3
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06901

As for the APSL, this has been a long standing issue with the Distribution, which dates back to the founding.

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/12/01/20282 54&mode=thread

Darwin is not free software, because the APSL is not consistent with the free software definition. For more information, check GNU Project.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html

You may know Yves@gnu-darwin.org, who is a OSXFaq.com editorial contributor. His most recent installment is highly germain.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index4.ws

Until Darwin is freed, activists such as myself will be leading users away from it instead of toward it. This antagonism towards Apple in the free software community has been aggravated by the DMCA fiasco. For example, Slashdot coverage of Apple has soured considerably since that time. We added the caveat to our Darwin distribution CD's soon after that (see grey box).

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/order.shtml

Clearly it is in Apple's best interest to repudiate the DMCA, to remove the onerous anti-privacy clause from the APSL, and to meet the standards of GNU Project, so that users can have a truly free OS, and so that activists can support Darwin instead of undermining it.

The message for users is to educate yourself about software freedom. In this world of economic contraction, the DMCA, RIAA, and the patriot act, that might take some effort, but it will be worthwhile in the event that free software becomes more difficult to maintain. Here is the starting point.

http://www.gnu.org

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Fair enough; the post made it to newsforge, so if you'll pardon me (little weary) I'll link to it there... In the meanwhile, we have a volunteer in the legal profession doing a write-up in english of the piece of legislation and its ramifications.

Thanks for your interest; I know grousing about submission rejections is poor form, but this one really smarts...

As the man said

"Finally, I the most important thing to say is that the community does not need to standardise. Over what is almost twelve years we have pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps. We have done this using a development model that allows us to produce software that proprietary vendors cannot compete with. Over time, as the software gets better, desktop distros get even more user friendy, and more people become aware of the existence of Linux (this is already happening on a large scale with the trickle down effect from use of Linux in governments and business), more and more users will experience, and then switch over to it.

To put it simply, the Linux community does not need to set up businesses with the specific intention of trying to "win" users from Microsoft; all w have to do is continue to develop software in the same way, and the users will make the switch all by themselves."

He was speaking about standarizing, but his argument applies equally well to this thread.

absolutely not.
But working for *Palladium* is evil.

This is so hot a topic, every nerd should be aware of it.
see this link.
the FAQ is here
also see this post

Their 10-person IT staff supports 800 users running 400 devices (as Dave calls the thin clients). There is no way they could adequately support that many users and devices with such a small staff if they ran Windows on individual desktops. Dave says that if they had gone that route, "We'd be doing nothing but running around fixing PCs all day."

Hey Taco! Guess what?

The site is about as professional as a 12 year old making a clan site using frontpage.

I'm off to Newsforge.

Linux will be ready for the desktop when Gnome or KDE drop dead (I can't wait) and some consistency settles in. Until then, I'll run BSD on my servers (the documentation is much better as a result of the consistency) and Windows on the desktop.

Then you should look at
Xandros Linux
Which is based on debian/corel linux and is quite good

Or
Lindows

Or
Lycoris

All of these are quite good Windows replacments and they will get better. Have a look at each and their prices/policies. Lindows has click'n'run which you have heard of. Lycoris I have used and is quite good.

Reviews are available from

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Lindows Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Lindows Review

"I don't see how SPI can work properly without a functioning Secretary and Board members who are too busy to make it even to the meetings. If those people wish to work on SPI matters and if their input is valuable, they should rather act as formal advisor, so SPI doesn't suffer from their overload but can benefit from their input," he added.

"In our current situation, with the currently assembled Board of Directors, with too many too busy Board members who are permanently not able to attend IRC Board meetings, join discussions and votes via mail and - from my perspective - a non-functioning Secretary with too many pending issues and problems writing and correcting minutes etc., I don't see a chance for SPI to work as our members and affiliated projects deserve.

"I believe that the Board requires a large change and that these members need to free their position so new people with more time and enthusiasm can join the Board and work on behalf of SPI."

Schulze wrote that, of the three he asked to resign, only Nils Lohner responded - and according to Schulze he has agreed to step down from his position as president. "Nils Lohner told the Board half a year ago that he will be absent for half a year. Once he was back, he let us know that he intends to resign since his new work environment did not leave enough room for SPI and he would not be able to act a Board member accordingly. Neither Wichert nor Ian even raised a word," says Schulze.

Barring voluntary resignations, Schulze noted article seven of the SPI by-laws, which provides for the forced removal of a director when "sufficient causes exist for such removal."

But ultimately, Schulze decided to remove himself from the situation, rather than pursue the matter further. "I hereby step down as vice president of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. I have announced the intention to step more than two weeks ago, and I also asked for help about a week later with no responses," he announced.

Software in the Public Interest, Inc., was established as a non-profit in 1997 and acts as an umbrella for Free Software projects such as Debian, GNOME, and OpenSource.org. The last published minutes are from a July 2002 board meeting, when the group officially approved GNU Texmacs as a sponsored project. At that meeting they also turned down Bruce Perens' request for the organization to get on board with his Sincer Choice initiative, because of its claim "We support a broad range of copyright policies, from Public Domain through Open Source and Free Software to Proprietary." SPI board members stated that it is a Free Software organization and does not agree with any policy that supports proprietary software.

Since Schulze's resignation on Sunday, 19-year-old Debian developer Jimmy Kaplowitz threw his hat into the ring, stating "Right now, SPI membership means very little other than a subscription to spi-private. We should involve the members, so that we can receive their input and ideas. This would involve more use of the public and members-only mailing lists, wherever it wouldn't violate confidentiality. I am thinking now of Nils Lohner's message to spi-general when membership was first introduced, and we need to again ask the members what they want the board to be doing.

"I would be honored to serve as an SPI board member, and I hope that I am given the chance."

"I don't see how SPI can work properly without a functioning Secretary and Board members who are too busy to make it even to the meetings. If those people wish to work on SPI matters and if their input is valuable, they should rather act as formal advisor, so SPI doesn't suffer from their overload but can benefit from their input," he added.

"In our current situation, with the currently assembled Board of Directors, with too many too busy Board members who are permanently not able to attend IRC Board meetings, join discussions and votes via mail and - from my perspective - a non-functioning Secretary with too many pending issues and problems writing and correcting minutes etc., I don't see a chance for SPI to work as our members and affiliated projects deserve.

"I believe that the Board requires a large change and that these members need to free their position so new people with more time and enthusiasm can join the Board and work on behalf of SPI."

Schulze wrote that, of the three he asked to resign, only Nils Lohner responded - and according to Schulze he has agreed to step down from his position as president. "Nils Lohner told the Board half a year ago that he will be absent for half a year. Once he was back, he let us know that he intends to resign since his new work environment did not leave enough room for SPI and he would not be able to act a Board member accordingly. Neither Wichert nor Ian even raised a word," says Schulze.

Barring voluntary resignations, Schulze noted article seven of the SPI by-laws, which provides for the forced removal of a director when "sufficient causes exist for such removal."

But ultimately, Schulze decided to remove himself from the situation, rather than pursue the matter further. "I hereby step down as vice president of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. I have announced the intention to step more than two weeks ago, and I also asked for help about a week later with no responses," he announced.

Software in the Public Interest, Inc., was established as a non-profit in 1997 and acts as an umbrella for Free Software projects such as Debian, GNOME, and OpenSource.org. The last published minutes are from a July 2002 board meeting, when the group officially approved GNU Texmacs as a sponsored project. At that meeting they also turned down Bruce Perens' request for the organization to get on board with his Sincer Choice initiative, because of its claim "We support a broad range of copyright policies, from Public Domain through Open Source and Free Software to Proprietary." SPI board members stated that it is a Free Software organization and does not agree with any policy that supports proprietary software.

Since Schulze's resignation on Sunday, 19-year-old Debian developer Jimmy Kaplowitz threw his hat into the ring, stating "Right now, SPI membership means very little other than a subscription to spi-private. We should involve the members, so that we can receive their input and ideas. This would involve more use of the public and members-only mailing lists, wherever it wouldn't violate confidentiality. I am thinking now of Nils Lohner's message to spi-general when membership was first introduced, and we need to again ask the members what they want the board to be doing.

"I would be honored to serve as an SPI board member, and I hope that I am given the chance."

there is only so many times in a day you can "go make coffee" or "check your email".

Geek Slack List

• http://www.subgenius.com/
• http://www.slackersguild.com/
• BBC News
• http://www.memepool.com/
• http://www.plastic.com/
• http://www.arstechnica.com/
• http://www.metafilter.com/
• http://www.techdirt.com/
• http://www.bottomquark.com/ (Science News)
• http://newsforge.com/
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/
• http://www.anandtech.com/
• http://www.bjorn3d.com/
• http://cellar.org - Image of the Day
• http://www.collegehumor.com/
• http://www.everything2.com/
• http://www.kuro5hin.org/
• http://www.theonion.com/
• NASA - Astronomy Picutre of the Day
• http://www.majorgeeks.com - Windows Shareware / Freeware
• http://www.advogato.org/
• http://www.sweetcode.org/
• http://www.disinfo.com/ - Disinformation
• http://www.somethingawful.com/
• http://www.astronomynow.com/ - Astronomy News
• http://www.aip.org/ - American Institue of Physics - News
• http://www.adequacy.org/

• The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking 1 on Large Computations

Hope this helps =)

Lucky us we were the lead story!
More Info if your curioious.
Even though I cures Bill Gates nightly before bed Microsoft is who keeps us in business. I feel like those northern California pot growers with the DEA. And yes the real geeks here at 888 Geek Help run Linux but none of our customers do. If you can compile a kernel you can find answers yourself. With the Wal-Mart distro's we may yet see that change Also none of our customers read Slashdot as they can't reach a URL without "www"
BTW We are now hiring

It was followed by a short lived, but lengthy discussion with regular readers of worldtechtribune (including the editor-in-chief apparently) and some other newsforge readers.

You may or may not find some interesting thoughts, or just more (mis)information.

Mandrake Linux Business Cases
Consulting Times
Open Source - ready for business
Open Source on the Business Desktop
Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!
A Hard Look at Linux's Claimed Strengths

The only thing I know about them is that they claimed to be releasing an "AOL PC" which wouldn't actually run AOL. Now, I'm not much of a fan of AOL, but the only people really hurt by this deceptive marketing are regular users who are led to believe that the computer they're purchasing does something that it doesn't actually do. (article here)

Also, they did at some point claim that Lindows ran most windows applications well, when in fact it just runs a few of them badly. (article here)

Honestly, they sound like a bunch of unscrupulous business people who have been making inroads at retail chains largely by making ridicoulous claims to management types who don't know the difference. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and I certainly wouldn't give them any of my money. In fact, I'd really like to know why Slashdot gets so excited every time they do something--people like this aren't good for the Linux community.

I know that here on Slashdot we all like to pile on the flaming when it comes to the Church of Scientology, but doesn't anyone care about the "Church" and its actions when they sponsor something like the Geek Cruise? Is this another case where Slashdotters are willing to look the other way because they are basically being bribed off? How many times do we see this with the RIAA/MPAA-love/hate relationship on this message board?

Here's the scoop. Geek Cruises Inc. is operated by Neil Bauman who is a OT6-level Scientologist. Not to mention that he has deep contacts with anti-semite Bobby Fischer.

The geek cruise format, from the time of leaving port is identical to that of the Freewinds OT5 training. The early seminars and late "social activities" are designed to loosen your mind from its pinnings, allowing external suggestion to become much easier.

This isn't done to "brainwash you into loving Linux", that's already done and there's no need to be redundant. However, the point of the cruise is to open your mind to the possibility of joining their other cruises like Mindscape: Clear your mind in Alaska and Celebrity Slam (this year featuring Nicholas Cage). These other cruises are specifically geared towards getting people hooked into Scientology. For whatever reason, it works a hell of a lot better than the weirdo movie they like to show to "IQ test takers" at their normal temples.

It's because the company Geek Cruises Inc does so many nice things for the geek community and provides really interesting cruises that Scientology likes it as a means of recruiting so much. Don't be fooled, please. If you are interested in Scientology, please visit their website and read up about it. Then visit Operation Clamback and read up about the things they don't want you to know.

Scientology is one of the most devious "religions" around. Don't be sucked in by promises of meeting geek celebrities or viewing beautiful scenery and stopping at exotic ports of call. It is all a scam. You may get what you pay for, but you will get much more that you simply don't want.

I have news for you. Microsoft doesn't give a crap about Linux or OS software and whatever insignificant market share they have.

Ballmer: Linux Is Top Threat To Windows

Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat

Ballmer: Microsoft sees the Linux challenge

You mention that "lots of big companies" are starting to deply Linux to the business desktop. Name a few.

Wall Street Embraces Linux

Linux for the Rest of Us

DreamWorks switches to HP, Linux

Secure Linux desktop begins shipping to UK police force

"And sorry Democrats, Republican ethics have triumphed again."
Eveel Repuglicans, oh wait eveel Democraps, oh wait I'm confused...
Leaders of the New Democrat Coalition attempt to outlaw GPL

It's just like xandros that includes the crossover pluging for the xandros 1.0 $99 product.

If you want a debian clone instead of a suse clone.

and their ideas about seamless, foolproof computers.

I would argue that that the RPSL is actually even more Free than the GPL in the sense that it attempts to close the ASP Loophole as explained in this Newsforge article.

Ya know, sometimes slashdot really pisses me off. I submitted the following and it got rejected:

-----BEGIN-------
2002-10-25 07:19:11 TacLUG delegation to visit Congressman Adam Smith (articles,news) (rejected)

My name is Chuck Wolber and I am the president of the Tacoma Linux Users Group. I also happen to live in Adam Smith's voting district. We have secured an appointment to see him in person on Monday October 28, 2002 at 11:30am regarding his letter
on the GPL as it applies to commercial use of government funded "innovation". We are trying to prepare as much as possible for this visit and wish to solicit the viewpoint of the greater OSS community. Our plan so far is to clarify and correct any misconceptions he may have while at the same time giving him a fair shot at stating his position for the record. What approach do you believe is the most effective way to get the point across that the GPL stimulates innovation rather than hurts it?
------END------

So anyway, we going to talk to da man himself to get things straightened out. If you have any input or angles you think we should consider, please feel free to start a dialog below...

Funny you should say that, because one of the members of the RIAA, Disney, has already done propaganda against P2P usage. The mp3 newswire and the newsforge have articles on it. The show is called the Proud Family and the particular episode spews the propaganda is called EZ-Jackster.

I was there at the commerce committee roundtable hearing on 7/17 with Berman's Committee. Check the transcript. Although some of the comments were left out, all of the comments from NYFairUse, NYLXS, LXNY, Information Producers Initiative were left out, one of the leeches in favor of drm restrictions actually said that P2P users sitting at home can use P2P to upload military secrets. He compared (towards the end of the meeting when everyone was tired, getting ready to go home, and paying less attention) a kid sitting a home trading songs to Wen Ho Lee, Robert Hanssen, and Jonathan Pollard. His first or last name was Myron.(Content Guard I think?)

It should be noted that NYFairUse and NYLXS tactics at the 7/17 meeting (and our unreported by Slashdot YRO attempts to get on the invite list prior to the meeting) were severely criticized by some in a slashdot story prior to all the facts getting out. Now that time has passed, and we have seen direct results of our actions, perhaps it is time to reconsider whether those actions should have been taken or not. Especially in light of this and this, which never would have happened if we had just sat there quietly like some have suggested, and news that the drm bills (all of them, Holling, Leahy, Biden, others) are dead for the year.

I was there at the commerce committee roundtable hearing on 7/17 with Berman's Committee. Check the transcript. Although some of the comments were left out, all of the comments from NYFairUse, NYLXS, LXNY, Information Producers Initiative were left out, one of the leeches in favor of drm restrictions actually said that P2P users sitting at home can use P2P to upload military secrets. He compared (towards the end of the meeting when everyone was tired, getting ready to go home, and paying less attention) a kid sitting a home trading songs to Wen Ho Lee, Robert Hanssen, and Jonathan Pollard. His first or last name was Myron.(Content Guard I think?)

It should be noted that NYFairUse and NYLXS tactics at the 7/17 meeting (and our unreported by Slashdot YRO attempts to get on the invite list prior to the meeting) were severely criticized by some in a slashdot story prior to all the facts getting out. Now that time has passed, and we have seen direct results of our actions, perhaps it is time to reconsider whether those actions should have been taken or not. Especially in light of this and this, which never would have happened if we had just sat there quietly like some have suggested, and news that the drm bills (all of them, Holling, Leahy, Biden, others) are dead for the year.

I was there at the commerce committee roundtable hearing on 7/17 with Berman's Committee. Check the transcript. Although some of the comments were left out, all of the comments from NYFairUse, NYLXS, LXNY, Information Producers Initiative were left out, one of the leeches in favor of drm restrictions actually said that P2P users sitting at home can use P2P to upload military secrets. He compared (towards the end of the meeting when everyone was tired, getting ready to go home, and paying less attention) a kid sitting a home trading songs to Wen Ho Lee, Robert Hanssen, and Jonathan Pollard. His first or last name was Myron.(Content Guard I think?)

It should be noted that NYFairUse and NYLXS tactics at the 7/17 meeting (and our unreported by Slashdot YRO attempts to get on the invite list prior to the meeting) were severely criticized by some in a slashdot story prior to all the facts getting out. Now that time has passed, and we have seen direct results of our actions, perhaps it is time to reconsider whether those actions should have been taken or not. Especially in light of this and this, which never would have happened if we had just sat there quietly like some have suggested, and news that the drm bills (all of them, Holling, Leahy, Biden, others) are dead for the year.

Neat idea, but IMHO timing is everything. I'm thinking that this might be in retaliation to yesterday's report of a Congressman trying to "outlaw" the GPL.

when this shows up on the same day.

One more thing. I've said here, and in other places, that Linux stuff isn't easy enough. (How many other people have said this too?) I've also talked beyond usability and about marketing, or lack of marketing, regarding Linux and open source. (How many others have done the same?) Geez, you know, you would think these companies would get a clue. A poster in the eWeek article summed it up quite well:

"Unfortunately, in the world of ignorant desktop users, marketing counts for much more than good product. Lindows is selling pre-installed on computers in multiple countries already. Xandros? The only reason I've heard of it is because I read geek sites like Newsforge."