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FOSS documentary on BBC World

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the here's-something-for-your-eye dept.

Zoxed writes ""A two-part documentary, 'The Code Breakers' will be aired on BBC World TV starting on 10 May 2006. Code Breakers investigates how poor countries are using FOSS applications for development, and includes stories and interviews from around the world." The first part is screening tonight on BBC World."

16 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Great Microsoft quote FTA by mustafap · · Score: 5, Funny

    "According to Jonathan Murray of Microsoft "The Open Source community stimulates innovation in software, it's something that frankly we feel very good about and it's something that we absolutely see as being a partnership with Microsoft."

    Must have had his fingers crossed behind his back at the time. Still, it made me laugh.

    --
    Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
    1. Re:Great Microsoft quote FTA by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "According to Jonathan Murray of Microsoft "The Open Source community stimulates innovation in software, it's something that frankly we feel very good about and it's something that we absolutely see as being a partnership with Microsoft."

      Must have had his fingers crossed behind his back at the time. Still, it made me laugh.

      There's nothing to laugh about, everything he said is true:

      - The open source community is very active

      - They feel good about it, since they "leverage" a lot of open source code (read: they legally steal the work of others) to make Windows better, like with the TCP/IP stack for example.

      - They see it as a partnership with Microsoft, i.e. they'd love people to keep producing good code for free that they can reuse, turn around and sell.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  2. i like this part from TA by mapkinase · · Score: 5, Informative
    Following its ten transmissions on BBC World the documentary will be available copyright-free for broadcast throughout the world.


    good job, lads.
    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  3. Re:Code Breakers = Breaking or Broken Code? by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Seem like their documentary title could use some adjusting, code breaking sounds a lot like simply creating a program that just doesn't work (i.e. is broken)

    At first I thought it was a documentary about Bletchley Park, where the Allies broke the German Enigma cipher.

    Perhaps they are refering to the "code" of buying all your software from Microsoft, which certainly could use some breaking if not downright thrashing.

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  4. Related quote by spellraiser · · Score: 2, Funny
    Intel, IBM, Sun and Microsoft all seem to agree that FOSS is a welcome presence in computer software.

    Yes, and a skunk seems harmless enough until it releases its foul scent.

    --
    I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
  5. They said what? by NoUse · · Score: 2, Insightful
    FTA:

    "Intel, IBM, Sun and Microsoft all seem to agree that FOSS is a welcome presence in computer software."

    Shared Source maybe, but FOSS?

    1. Re:They said what? by tiocsti · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Some shared source licenses are also open source licenses. Certainly there's nothing wrong with the Microsoft Permissive License or the Microsoft Community License from an opensource perspective. The microsoft reference license, on the other hand, is not quite so free or useful (you can use it to understand, but cant modify it or redistribute it).

      http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/li censingbasics/sharedsourcelicenses.mspx

  6. So which one is it? by loconet · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And yet, a few years ago they saw it as a cancer..


    And yet this is the shaky basis on which Ballmer dismisses open source as anathema to all commercial software companies. It can't be used at all, he reasons, because even a tiny germ of it, like a metastasizing cancer, contaminates the entire body. Thus Microsoft 'has a problem' with government funding of open-source.


    Unbelievable. actually.. not.

    --
    [alk]
  7. Re:Until now? by MarkByers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The continual adoption of Open Source software by developing countries is starting to give me hope that we might actually have a chance of escaping the Monocrosoft empire.

    You can escape already now, as long as you are willing to make some sacrifices like having to explain to family members why the you haven't played the fantastic game that they emailed to you as an .exe file.

    --
    I'll probably be modded down for this...
  8. Quoted out of context ... by molarmass192 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The ending of that quote is missing, here it is:

    "... unless those FOSS projects are using that commie bastard cancerous GNU GPL license. Great, now you've gone and made me say GNU. ARGH! I said GNU again!"

    It's humor people!

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  9. UK don't get BBC World?... by Manip · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In an ironic twist most people in the UK (home of the BBC) won't get to see this as we don't receive BBC World and it isn't being broadcast on any of the "normal" BBC channels.

    A little ironic don't you think... Kind of like the yanks not getting something created by ABC or Fox but letting the rest of the world have it.

    1. Re:UK don't get BBC World?... by quincunx55555 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Last I knew, we (Amerikuns) don't get CNNi (International), or MTV International (if it still exists). When I was in Norway, during the summer of 1991, I was shocked at the amount of near real news comming out of CNNi. It was "info-rich" compared to the fluff they broadcast domestically. The CNNi Headline News actually spent the whole half hour talking about world events. The domestic version would spend 5-10 minutes on world events, 10-15 minutes on domestic "news", then spend the last 5 minutes or so with a useless story like how some people have pot bellied pigs as pets (interviewing owners, footage of the pigs, etc).

      Back then MTV played music videos (I know, I'm dating myself); but even the international version was waaaaaaay better than what we received in the US. By 1991, Beavis and Butthead were the only source of non-pop music videos (Zombie owes his successful exposure to them) on MTV; everything else was so tightly controlled by the RIAA (I think), that there was no creativity or diversification. However, MTV International played a broad range of music videos, mostly from popular bands around the world; but I had never seen The Gypsy Kings, or KLF on "domestic" MTV.

      It started to make me wonder if people outside the USA have a better picture of what's going on (even in our own country) since we are so "sheltered" from information. How many more networks/info-outlets perform this "double broadcasting"?

    2. Re:UK don't get BBC World?... by VENONA · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "It started to make me wonder if people outside the USA have a better picture of what's going on (even in our own country) since we are so "sheltered" from information."

      I'm absolutely certain of it. The first three Web sites I hit for international news are:

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/
      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
      http://news.google.com/

      Tremendously different slant on many issues than staying with US domestic news. Also some very clearcut cases of biased reporting in US media (not just the horrible Fox News). In fact, after a few years of the first two (Google News is comparatively new, of course) I can't *stand* domestic US 'news' services. But then I was never into pot-bellied pigs, either.

      --
      What you do with a computer does not constitute the whole of computing.
    3. Re:UK don't get BBC World?... by isorox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Even worse, I try the realplayer link and get "BBC World is not available in the UK".. Sheesh...

      BBC World is a commercial channel, funded and run completely seperatly from the normal BBC news (although staff are shared, BBC World pay for this). The BBC charter doesn't allow it to be broadcast in the UK.

      Of course the competition argue that the license fee subsidises BBC World, which it arguably does.

      You're not missing much, besides it is available in the UK, point you sat dish to an appropiate satelite.

  10. that title is awful! by AlgorithMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    man, this title is horrible!
    The Code Breakers

    I could scream in agony! this sounds like it was about crackers, thieves, reverse software engineers that break the law and infringe patents!

    lets say tv-magazines write this title and the word "FOSS" - then people who read this, but don't watch the ducumentary will think FOSS was something criminal!

    thank you very much for this FUD, BBC a.k.a. broadcasters of copyrighted media

    --
    The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
  11. Re:Can someone report back to me? by lilo_booter · · Score: 2, Informative

    You were indeed in it (largely being credited for substituting Free for Open), and I would be happy to send you a DVD or provide a download if you don't already have a copy.

    For the record, my take on the documentary was that it was fairly good on the whole (ignoring some obviously glaring mistakes in the voice over), but it gave way too much airtime to the Microsoft spokesman. Worth watching though.

    Cheers,

    Charlie