Slashdot Mirror
Bruce Perens on the Status of Open Source
Lars Lehtonen writes to tell us that Bruce Perens has posted the text of his LinuxWorld press conference. In his talk he takes a look at many of the hot topics surrounding the open source community including ODF, NTP vs RIM, and GPLv3. From the article: "It's interesting to note that Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist implicated in scandal with Republican Tom Delay, was employed by Bill Gates' dad's law firm "Preston Gates", a political proxy for Microsoft. Microsoft succeeded in lobbying both Republicans and Democrats to oppose ODF."
Do we really need a "status of open source" article every 2 weeks? Can't they just say "yup, two weeks later, not much'as changed..."
(now watch me get modded Troll)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
And this means what, exactly? Abramoff pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, but didn't have much of anything to do with Microsoft or ODF.
This seem to be a nice set of coincidences, but nothing more. If you are going to allege something sinister, please do it with evidence or proof. Throwing a bunch of random things out doesn't really mean much to anybody but gullible leftist slashbot.
He was the leader of the Debian Project from 1996-1997 and founder of various other projects such as The Open Source Initiative ( http://opensource.org/ ) and Software in the Public Interest ( http://www.spi-inc.org/ )
I don't need this, I've got a Master's Degree in folklore and mythology!
"It's interesting to note that Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist implicated in scandal with Republican Tom Delay, was employed by Bill Gates' dad's law firm "Preston Gates", a political proxy for Microsoft. Microsoft succeeded in lobbying both Republicans and Democrats to oppose ODF."
What is interesting about it is the fact that it is lobbying. Lobbying is only organized, legalized bribery! Microsoft lobbies both Republicans and Democrats because it really doesn't care who is in power as long as they can buy the legislation they want. The fact that it was found illegal is something they will probably take care of with the next round of legislation (and partly paid for by Microsoft along with all other companies looking for a special favor).
Republican, Democrat, who cares? What we must get rid of is the entire idea of "pay for legislation"!
Oh yeah, just like any other slashdotter - who happened to co-found the open source initiative and found the linux standard base. Exactly like any other random slashdotter who's written 20 books on open source, under open source licenses, published by prentice hall.
Really, why is this troll modded up? How many slashdotters were project head of Debian or the first open source evangelist to work in top management at a multi-billion dollar company? You might not like perens' views, but he's a whole fuckload more qualified to make these kinds of statements than the average living-in-mom's-basement slashdotter.
So he's qualified to make statements about open source because... he has a long history of making statements about open source?
Speak for yourself. Many of us DO want to read Microsoft news. I may choose Linux for my personal computers (unless hardware is an issue such as ATI tuner/AiW cards) and more and more so for the office, but I don't deny that Microsoft does produce some great products.
I run Linux for four primary reasons:
1. I disagree with Microsoft's anti-customer policies as of late, including no de-activation, their suing of customers, and their DRM-infested media player
2. I believe Microsoft has been abusing their monopoly status, especially since SmartSuite and WordPerfect have been rendered impotent in the marketplace
3. because I like the KDE desktop far more than I like Explorer (tabbed file browsing is great. *nix shell scripting is undeniably superior to scripting on Windows and konsole is a wonderful console manager)
4. Everything, and I mean everything can be automated on Linux/Unix/UNIX where maintenance is concerned. and nearly all maintenance can be performed live. Unix doesn't have to play the "let's redefine the term 'downtime'" game
With that said, I'm interested in what Microsoft is doing with their Linux lab. I'd be interested to see whether they release Visual Studio (Kdevelop is great, but it's no comparison to Microsoft's IDE) and Microsoft Office for Linux. I'm interested in watching the price of Microsoft Office now that OpenOffice is nipping at Microsoft Office's heels in terms of usability/functionality. I'm interested in whether or not Microsoft adjusts their marketing to indicate true TCO of each environment. I'm interested in what Monad has to offer. I'm interested in whether or not I'll be able to watch HD-DVD and Blu-Ray media at FULL resolution on my 2048x1536 CRT displays, or if I will have to downgrade to lower-resolution LCD screens.
Believe me, although some of us hate Microsoft's current actions, we actually view software products as tools, and Linux is not the BFH that is right for all problems.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Because he helped START the open source movement, and has had many significant contributions which have helped advance open source. He didn't just talk about it, he made things happen - both by talking and by doing.
There isn't much to be learned from this.
We are given some rather improbable conspiracy theory around the ODF affair, a long wail about software patents, a few digs at Microsoft, some very tentative ideas about DRM and a slapdown of Linus Torvalds, something that now seems almost obligatory every time the big cheeses of the Linux world open their mouth. I wonder why they feel they have to run Torvalds down. Are they worried they won't be seen as following the correct right-on line and might be made to stand on their own in the playground? Frightened, perhaps, that Big Richard Stallman will say they are sissies and chuck them out of his gang? Whatever the reason it comes over as pretty darn unedifying.
Articles about how awful the patent system is are ten a penny. What is very hard to find are folks who have thought this one through, have some cogent and realistic proposals, and who are prepared to build support for change among those in a position to change things. Anyway, it doesn't sound as if Mr Perens will be one. Big cheese massage sounds more his gig.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
Abramoff worked for ANYBODY that would give him cash. His buddies of old, Ralph Reed, Norquist, would often take the opposing sides. And they made millions, unprecedented wealth, in using DeLay as an on/off switch for introducing or burying legislation. It was government for sale.
And NO, kids, it was not business as usual. This is what happens when one party takes over everything, and that party only represents moneyed interests.
Nice troll, but what the heck does that have to do with a business plan?
;)
Let's run through it:
- We used to run asp.net - it is slower/less reponsive and more memory intensive than LAMP
- Licensing - we spent money on exchange and SQL server but will be saving the money on upgrades. We develop solutions for SQL Server for clients who want Windows, but since we've removed SQL Server from production and now use it only for development, future upgrades (MySQL and Postgres) will be - yep, the cost of a download and CD-R or DVD-R. If clients are so inclined to pay thousands for SQL Server licensing, let them. It's THEIR choice. We will be saving money, lowering our overhead. As we need upgrades for development, that will be covered by MSDN subscriptions.
- Exchange - in order to maintain it properly, "Maintenance windows" must be scheduled to bring down the information store (EVEN if we were to cluster it). Not so with Postfix (which is email-only), Zimbra, Open-Xchange, or Scalix. So, very soon we will be punting Exchange, and while an investment was made future upgrades for other solutions will be either free (Postfix, Open-Xchange, or Zimbra) or inexpensive - PLUS all maintenance can be automated. Not only that, the user experience is transparent since Outlook or Thunderbird can still be used by Windows users, and any number of clients may be used by Linux users.
In other words, what impact does this have on our business plan? None. It does affect our bottom line in a positive way, however, and our uptime is steadily increasing as we move more services off of Windows and on to Linux.
Again, nice attempt at a troll though. Isn't AC a nice feature?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Well, they could do a pretty decent job of stopping you from distributing it or using it anywhere that is publicly visible. Now, the law doesn't stop meth labs, but I don't want those who choose to develop or use Free Software to have to operate like a meth lab.
It used to be that people thought that the law had no real mechanism that could touch the Internet. Enough people like Skylarov have gone to jail for writing the wrong software or have had their net worth made negative through the need to mount a legal defense against an unjust civil or criminal claim. I don't want Tridge or Jeremy Allison to go to jail for reverse-engineering Windows file and printer sharing or infringing on some improperly-granted patent. I don't want to go to jail for using it.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Don't be deliberately obtuse. The Indian casinos in question gave money to Harry Reid because he was their district's representative. That they were clients of Abramoff is no reason to go pretending they were funnelling money from Abramoff to Democrats, especially since Abramoff needed no "funnel" to pass money straight to Republicans, Democrats have little chance of getting national legislation passed for crooked parties when they are out of power, and most importantly, ABRAMOFF WAS TAKING MONEY FROM THESE SAME INDIANS. It should also be mentioned that donations to democrats were discouraged by Abramoff, and these donations were smaller in the years that the tribes retained Abramoff than in years before.
Can we just put this Fox News legend to rest already? Every time Abramoff is mentioned, wingers jump up and down shouting "Democrats too! Democrats too!" like deranged parrots.How do they think that helps your side anyway? "Oh look, some Democrats are so slimy they get in bed with US!" is a winning argument?