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New Sidekick Will Run NetBSD, Not Windows CE
jschauma writes "Many sites are reporting that the next Sidekick LX 2009/Blade, from Danger (acquired by Microsoft early in 2008), is going to run NetBSD as their operating system, causing Microsoft's recruiters to look for NetBSD developers."
Just asking.
Loaded with links, that is.
Really? Did we need 5 links in one sentence to convey a message which would've sufficed with at least two less links?
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
Heaven forbid we use the GPL. Let's go for the BSD license! It's worse!
Go Microsoft, you're finally growing up!
This isn't exactly the first time Microsoft has leveraged BSD code in a product... cough, TCP stack, cough...
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
My NetBSD toaster was lonely. Getting him a friend will be nice.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
http://michaelsmith.id.au
This reminds me of the Hotmail Unix to Windows conversion a few years back. They failed the first time. But eventually got it right.
Microsoft's own Exchange servers have Postfix on their spam filtering boxen front-end. Not exactly eating their own dog food, when they have their own Forefront Security for Exchange.
This is the Postfix program at host mailxxx-xxx-R.bigfish.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.
The Postfix program
: host xxxxx-xxxx-mail5.customer.frontbridge.com[131.107.115.214] said: 550 5.7.1
$whois frontbridge.com,
Domain Name: FRONTBRIDGE.COM Registrar of Record: Corporate Domains, Inc. Administrative Contact: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US domains@microsoft.com +1.4258828080 Fax: +1.4259367329
$whois bigfish.com ,
Domain Name: BIGFISH.COM Registrar of Record: Corporate Domains, Inc. Administrative Contact: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US domains@microsoft.com +1.4258828080 Fax: +1.4259367329
So submit a patch.
How many people are going to be developing on non-x86 systems anyway?
cat
Perhaps they did, perhaps they didn't. I know nothing at all about servers but wouldn't it be possible to just put some IIS server between the Linux server and the WWW to make it look like IIS to the outside? Or even configure the Linux+Apache like that directly? Yeah, it's a shame we lost the "Hehe, look at that" because there is no way to prove any of this. However, Netcraft saying they switched over a few years ago doesn't necessarily mean they did... I think.
Cool. Somebody tell Borland!
thegodmovie.com - watch it
This is why the developer community for the SK imploded. While there's still a core of hard-core SK developers out there, the majority of them moved on to greener pastures after the whole fiasco with Danger and their multiple personality disorder with regards to developers.
This, and their shit hardware QC, are why the Sidekick stopped being a real, going concern several years ago.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Is Android itself x86?
Seriously, this isn't surprising... NetBSD runs on everything. The NetBSD team spends a significant amount of time supporting a large number of platforms - be it a modern X86 server or a sun pizza box.
You'll notice that commercial entities like the BSD license (see: OS X) And, I don't think that the NetBSD developers will suddenly panic: "Someone's going to steal our code!" Contrary to what some here might feel, there is room for more than one open source operating system and, believe it or not, more than one license.
Back in the old days, slashdot had the BSD link right on the front page.
When Microsoft sold Xenix to the Santa Cruz Operation ( Not the current SCO Group ), wasn't there a Non-compete clause in the agreement? I thought that Microsoft was not allowed to sell any Unix based operating system - and that would include any NetBSD derivative.
Microsoft have woken up to the fact that the only way to defeat Linux and the GPL is to support the BSD type licensed software.
What's the problem with that?
Every system has to have a basic set of rules. That basic set of rules is there to ensure that the system itself will continue to exist.
So for instance, democracy won't last very long if you allow a simple majority of voters to vote democracy out of existence. The dim witted might say that makes it more democratic to allow it, but the more thoughtful will see that if you allow the voters to put an end to their democratic rights, it actually becomes less democratic - less free.
We call those basic rules which protect our democratic rights a 'constitution' and the exact nature of the constitution determine exactly how free we will be.
Hitler was voted into power democratically, and then went to the people again to have them vote him dictatorial powers. Once it's done, it's awfully difficult to get it back. Look what it took to get democracy running again in Germany.
There is a similar situation with software licences. The GPL has its constitution built in. It says that the software it covers has been produced communally, and that if you wish to redistribute it, you must include the source code and the same license ( i.e. the same freedoms ) which existed with that code when you got hold of it.
The BSD license does not have such guarantees built in. Anyone can take that code, ignore the communal effort which went into producing it, close source the code and their own additions and benefit off the backs of the work of others.
The BSD license is not about freedom. It is about encouraging closed source monopolies with some free help, and this is an example of that happening.
Don't confuse open source with freedom. It'll soon all be gone if you do.
Sidekick? I can totally do this! I still have some old TSR code lying around...
fedora on ppc? Or ubuntu?
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Ninnle Labs already working on the port for this.
If you're going to try to goatse us, you should at least try to hide the link.
It's not like you would be going in to code the next Microsoft Useless Widget 2.0.
Right. You'll just be porting Microsoft Useless Widget from Windows CE to NetBSD.
Or, M$ is hoping enough NetBSD developers, or potential developers, are naive or weak enough to turn quisling. NetBSD is small enough that it is comparable in size to small companies, and taking out enough developers to sink the project is a realistic goal.
It happened to Borland and others. Of the FOSS distros, NetBSD the lowest hanging fruit for such a tactic. Larger distros require other tactics.
Even if the offer is legit, which it probably, isn't, just wasting invaluable developer resources porting Microsoft Useless Widget from Windows CE to NetBSD is a human resources denial of service attack taking developer time away from something useful.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I find it strange that until now there isn't a single comment on the open-ness of that platform. Yes, it may run a BSD flavour. Nonetheless, is the platform locked down? Is it possible for any end-user to reinstall the OS without the need of circumvention tools and hard hacks?
That, as I see it, is the single most interesting aspect of this article. After all, if the sidekick platform is locked down then it doesn't really matter it is running a BSD flavour. Moreover, it would once again emphasize the need for the legal constructs added to the GPL in the form of GPLv3.
So, is it locked down? Can it run linux?
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
Now I don't know if I am supposed to hate Microsoft still. Where are we on the hate-o-meter for MS? Surely this drops the needle down from Blazing Fury of a Million Suns to maybe Mildly Atrocious or American Idol or something. This is so hard to figure out.
Oh wait does "BSD is dyin" come into play here or not?
ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
Could this be their big long-term plan? http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/01/microsoft_paten_1.html
Just an idea, Apple basically did this with OS X, only they put it on the desktop first, MSFT will just go in the other direction here
It's certainly worked for Apple in the last 5+ years.
My Sig Sucks
Isn't it ... ? Wasn't it ... ? Wasn't it already ... ?
Oh no, nevermind!
could their patches get upstream product of bug fixing? will they sign an NDA?
Windows CE is dying
development was well underway when Danger got bought by MS. That means it was likely cheaper to just continue doing what they were doing rather than scrap the work and start again using Microsoft's stuff.
Hm, if only it worked that way. But out there in Biznis land that kind of rationality rarely prevails in my experience. The "NIH" and "OMG ITZ NOT MS" factors rank higher than "faster, better, cheaper" (i.e. anything not MS).
Plus, executives are, often, ah, "incented" to choose the Microsoft solution in the face of any technical or common sense objection. (See: Windows 4 Warships, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc)
you had me at #!
Microsoft is still evil.
you had me at #!
Pardon me, but why is the zip code for Burlington, VT a secret troll code?
Just curious and stuff.
music lover since 1969
This is great a BSD post on slashdot and no BSD is dying post.
So It's official BSD in NOT dying netcraft confirms it.
"If a show of teeth is not enough, bite
... does it run Linux?
Would you fucking morons ALL get off your high-horses? Freedom is being able to CHOOSE between any fucking license that suites your personal/business/religous/world view. Therefore: BSD == free, GPL == free and it's perfectly OKAY that BSD != GPL. Like one and not the other? Great, shut-up about it and use what you like.
Personally, I'm a big fan of both. Ifuckingmagine that.
Quack, quack.
I take it back after reading the rest of the posts.
Linux kids: read more (BSD kids, don't be like them).
Isn'z zlib LGPL?
No
a post on /. about netbsd and 99% of the comments are about licensing crap instead of an interesting technical discussion... color me surprised...
aren't ya'll tired of repeating the same stuff over and over again?
Actually, for the longest time, MS was going to move the Sidekick over to WinCE- they were even gearing up for it. Unfortunately, after many months of this (A year ago, in reality...), they have announced that they're doing it with a *BSD core and they're HIRING *BSD devs for it.
If you're doing what you're claiming, you don't spend 12 months doing it that way and then gear up for the other OS that you don't sell...doesn't look good to investors to spend 225 billion or so on someone to do something like this. ;-)
That's not all that looks bad for investors. WinMo 7 is coming out in 2010, a year behind schedule, which is an eternity with the Palm Pre coming out in 2009, Android gaining traction, and of course the iPhone and Blackberry all out-selling it with next-generation smartphones that are either iPhone-like or otherwise more stable and powerful devices than WinMo/WinCE.
I feel so torn. On one had here is a chance to be paid to work on netbsd. On the other hand the job is with Microsoft.
Time to stick a fork in it, it's done. Sidekick is gone and it's time to move on. Sure it could linger on and slowing languish taking a few good developers with it on the decent into obscurity. But face it, it's owned by MS and the official policy is to stomp anything that does not promote lock-in to Windows/Office. Look at the warning example of Foxpro and see what happens to a good product that MS can't compete with on quality but was too popular to shutdown outright.
Even if the offer is legit, which it probably, isn't, just wasting invaluable developer resources porting Microsoft Useless Widget from Windows CE to NetBSD is a human resources denial of service attack taking developer time away from something useful. An extreme version of that tactic was used against Borland and others. NetBSD is small enough that it is comparable in size to small companies, and taking out enough developers to sink the project is a realistic goal if some NetBSD developers, or potential developers, are naive or weak enough to turn quisling.
Face it. Sidekick is gone, M$ has it, and its now time to finish your mourning, face reality and move on. Start a new company.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.