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IBM's Purple Book and Open Source
Bill Kendrick writes: "I noticed a ZDNet article titled "Why we should hail IBM's ode to open source--the Purple Book". It compares IBM's open release of the classic PC's hardware and BIOS specifications with today's OpenSource model and Linux." Shortly after IBM's open-spec PC, they reverted to the closed PS/2 with a patented bus in an attempt to monopolize the exploding market. Hopefully this particular bit of history won't replay itself.
I have a DOS Technical Reference, an IBM PC Hardware Technical Reference and an IBM AT Hardware technical Reference. These were the old style looseleaf format binder in a slipcover. I read the commented assembler listing of the BIOS. I learned quite a bit of assembler language from that reference.
I should probably sell them on eBay.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Interesting idea, but it doesn't quite work. True, either sentence could be false, but as long as one and only one is true, the whole statement is self consistent. I believe the idea you're looking for is:
the following sentence is a lie. the preceding sentence is true.
Free software is great. But after two or three years, I still don't know what "open source" is supposed to be... Any definition which encompasses the SCSL, the NPL, and perhaps even Microsofts "Shared Source" must be so broad as to be practially meaningless.