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SCO Might Sue Linus for Patent Infringement?
An anonymous reader writes "[Darl McBride, SCO's chief executive stated] that unless more companies start licensing SCO's property, he may also sue Linus Torvalds, who is credited with inventing the Linux operating system, for patent infringement." It's right at the end of the story and it's quite a statement.
FRIST PSOT!!!!!
OMFGWTFBBQ?!?!
Rob, RUN!!!! Your servers are about to have a meltdown....
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
d'oh!
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a_______\___.__C____)_________(_(____>__|__/____a
t_______/\_|___C_____)/______\_(_____>__|_/_____t
s______/_/\|___C_____)__SCO__|__(___>___/__\____s
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Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.
...lawyers sue you!
prepair to die!
Or at least flog him or something...
after all it would loose half of its daily articles.
Loose half of its daily articles? Upon whom?
Looser. I'd loose my head if that happened.
Slashdot would loose a lot of respect tooo.
My noose itches.
As a tribute and an obituary to SCO, their lawsuits and their press releases I humbly suggest that for 24 hours /. mods all on-topic comments off topic, and all off topic, redundant, troll, flamebait posts +5 interesting.
To kick off the festivities, may I just say, green wibble wibble elephant Chris Waddle cheese.
Beep beep.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
perhaps?
Neither Do I POo On Slashdot ?
lone, dfx.
for one agree with his apathy... it's denying the sort of media circus that could result. Think about how much better all our lives would have been if the media had chose apathy in the OJ case (I know I'm going OT here) and just reported "OJ on trail for murder" and then proceeded onto the next story.
Think how much better our lives would have been had the media just reported, "Terrorists attacked the World Trade center today." and then left it largely at that, with maybe a little more on the regional news.
The end result would have been that Osama and the next dozen Osamas would realise terrorism doesn't get publicity and they would have been unable to secure their goals of changing the American way of life.
Instead, the media saw it as an excuse to print money. The president saw it as an excuse to shore up a shaky presidency. Both capitalised on it as much as possible. The end result being that terrorists now know that while fighting the US conventionally is a joke, given their limited resources, acts of terror will be kindly relayed, over and over, to the American people by its media and its president. You don't get much of a better bang for your buck than that.
Why, it's almost as if their desire to abuse 9/11 for their own popularity has condemned us to decades more terrorism.
A similar argument is made about America and guns in Bowling For Columbine - playing to the country's fear, exaserbating the problem, gets more ratings at the expense of both public safety and any semblance of reality.
The question comes though: Are the media responsible for hyping for profit or are the people responsible for reacting in such a way and therefore making it profitable in the first place?