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OSDL Answers SCO With Kernel Awareness Campaign
prostoalex writes "Open Source Development Labs announced a new initiative to increase customer confidence in using Linux in business. The initiative is launched in answer to legal claims by SCO Group. So far managers and developers around the world are supposed to boost their confidence in Linux with the help of this little poster, which explains the kernel development process."
What if they went on tour? 32 cities in 25 days...
Make sure all the big guns are there...Darl, et al...
And have a dunking machine...:)
I'd pay money for that!!!
-Pride
Now why would kernel development impress decision makers? They think in terms of support, reliability, standardisation, following market trends, etc. Geek terminology only alienates managers.
How many of you linux boy and girls hav a new desktop image now? ]:3}>
Pretty Pictures!
1. Make poster with pictures of penguin
2. Randomly connect the lines
3. Draw stick figures.
4. ???
5. Profit!
Mirror here
Its very managment speak with a few differenet coloured tux's
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
This is the exact thought going through a management type's head:
Lawsuit...bad.
Poster...pretty! Sign me up!
Now, if we wanted to really influence them, we'd put flashy things on it.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I'm just missing a big red arrow with the text "You are here."...
The only thing that stands out to me in the picture is the red penguin sitting next to... what? a little volcano? Is that supposed to signify that the development kernel can blow up at any time or something? *confused*
Woah, someone who hasn't heard of Fark?!? It's not news... It's FARK!
Which penguin is Linus???
OK, the next time someone spouts off about "Joe Sixpack", "marketdroids" or "lusers", keep this helpful bit of highly technical documentation in mind:
A diagram explaining how Linux code is written by humans, approved by two layers of penguins (one with a briefcase) and then passed on to human users.
What is the target audience supposed to do, go to their legal division and say, "No, there's no problem with Linux! See this explanatory document? All code is approved by a penguin. And yes, the GIMP is a perfectly suitable professional replacement for Photoshop. Notice the beautiful use of the select and fill tools?"
Am I the only one who thinks this diagram looks like an outtake from a Troy McClure film? "Mr. McClure, SCO says Linus stole their code!" "Not true, Timmy! As this diagram indicates, all code in Linux is approved by two levels of penguins!"
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
...but do we really expect management, who has no idea about technology and IP rights to be swayed by a pretty poster vs. massive lawsuits that they hear about on the morning news?
But... but... look at the arrows! There's a flow between me, the market, a funny fat penguin and even some big magnifying glasses! Now I just need a seminar to learn what it all means!
Does anyone else find this disturbing?
OSDL (comprised of arguably some of the best minds in the industry) have a strategy whereby they release a jpeg image !?!
My only peeve is when companies do stupid things like outsource. It's basically selling your company's soul, and it actually costs MORE than having your own department.
Anyway, my point is that managers arent supposed to be 'clued in' to technology and IP rights. Thats why they hire IT staff and legal departments.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
...that someone with WAY too much time on their hands is going to take this and animate it to do something obscene in Flash or something?
Un-news
One of the things from the poster that mystifies me is the lack of mention of testing. How does each new build of the kernel get validated for release? What types and levels of testing are done (e.g. integration, HW compatibility, etc.)? Can anyone explain?
No comment about the poster - it speaks for itself - but the article on internetnews was really quite good. It looks like OSDL is making a concerted effort to explain the kernel development process in such a way to factually counter SCO's claims. Peer review isn't perfect, but it is a very powerful tool for oversight of a project such as software development. With the information from internetnews it should now be possible for people who were otherwise in doubt to see how unlikely it is that "one million lines" of SCO-owned code could make it into the Linux kernel.
May as well just put up a sign that has the word "CHICKS" inside of a circle with a slash through it... Same effect...
I think I've figured it out. The source code talks to the penguins and the little penguins hand the source code to the contributors and the fat penguins compile the source code and give it to the market place and somehow the market place gives the code back again
whoever did that flow chart is insane
Linux end users need to understand that *they* can not be sued. Forget the ibm v scox case - that is a case between ibm and scox.
The idea that scox can sue linux end users is completely absurd - even if ibm did break some contract, even if there is illegal code in linux.
Companies and individuals that buy linux in good faith, have done nothing wrong. They have not violated any copyright - and certainly they have not violated any patent, trademark, or trade secret. Therefore, scox has absolutely no grounds to sue linux end users. I don't care if ibm broke one hundred contracts with scox. That is the message that the needs to get to the linux end users.
Yes, in places the Linux code is under commented. The code is, IMHO, structured in a way that in makes the meaning obvious in most cases and the code easy to read. This is far more important than comments. Comments do not make good code.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The idea is to show that there is continuous public review of the code, and that there is no real way to add malicious or illegal code into the kernel unnoticed. It's no show managers that their systems are plenty legal with the SCO tax.
You are all fartheads.
You can't spell SCOundrel without SCO
Come on, we all new it from the start !!!
... IT is only a piece of the pie- it isnt the whole pie....
Well, yeah, that's true, but management wants to pretend that management is the whole pie. Despite the fact that the tech people have a lot to contribute to the qualitative running of a business, tech people are treated like line workers (who also need to be treated better, but that's a whole other post) because of the two distinct worldviews of corporate culture and IT culture.
IT culture is open and flexible, based on "what happens if we do this?" and "does it make sense?"; corporate culture is built around conformity, procedure, and (sometimes) personal prestige, which few geeks have any patience for.
Five percent of one year's DoD budget puts us on Mars.