Who else is going to sue them for the SCO IP rights which SCO phoned Matt Szulik about?
The paragraph implies that other people might sue RedHat besides just SCO, but certainly SCO thinks RedHat is infringing. (Don't forget of course, that Red Hat is SCO's biggest competitor).
If you want to talk about inflammatory comments then read the article again. The only thing they could have said worse would be to threaten Mandrake and Debian as well. Their ealier comments comparing Linux to a bicycle were designed to piss people off.
The quote from the slashdot blurb is accurate. The article does say:
CRN: Have you talked to Red Hat?
McBride: Yes. We approached Red Hat [about licensing source code libraries] and they thought [our claim] was interesting. They said they'd talk about it, but then called back and said we'll pass [on licensing the source code from SCO]. [Red Hat Chairman and CEO Matthew] Szulik said copyright issues scare him. But Red Hat has had a free ride. In its IPO filings, one of the warnings to investors stated clearly that Red Hat may be violating IP and one day they may have to step up and pay royalties. Why not? Every time I ship a copy of my operating system, I pay royalties to Novell and Veritas. There will be a day of reckoning for Red Hat and SuSE when this is done. But we're focused on the IBM situation.
That looks like a clear statement that they plan to sue RedHat and SuSE after the IBM lawsuit.
I wouldn't be surprised if samba + linux was more reliable than Windows + SMB.
It is interesting that more people are paid to work full time on SAMBA than work on the windows implementation. But obviously Microsoft has an easier job because they don't have to worry about reverse engineering all the new changes to the protocol.
The first 3 digits come from the zip code where you were born. The next 2 are a "group id" that may be a little bit random, but it doesn't change very often. The last 4 are just incremented for each new ssn. In this case only the most significant bit matters so it's easy to guess.
I was initially skeptical of Keith Packard's fork but after reading his email, I support it. He addressed the issues that I have been complaining about for years.
KeithP is one of the few people who could make a fork work.
I have a hard time with David Wexelblat who doesn't work on XFree86 and doesn't even believe in it, insulting one of the key developers.
I hack on Smatch which is quite similar to the Reasoning software.
The cool thing about smatch as oposed to lint etc is that you can look for bugs specific to your codebase. For example, in the Linux kernel you are not allowed to call copy_to_user with a spin_lock held.
It's pretty simple to throw together a smatch script that looks for that kind of bug.
I'm not sure how useful writing specific checks like that is for smaller projects, but for a huge project like the linux kernel, you are always going to find bugs.
And of course some of the smatch checks can be generalized for all programs. For example, no one likes to leak memory.
Check out kbugs.org. These are the smatch results from testing the 2.5.65 kernel. We found 1400 possible bugs in the 2.5.65 kernel but probably over half of those are false positives.
Smatch is an open source checker that finds similar sorts of problems to the Reasoning software. For example, both look for dereference bugs.
The bad news is that smatch is still in the pre-alpha stages and it only works on C for now. And also the kbugs.org site is crappy.
The cool thing about smatch is that you can write checks which are custom to your code. Mostly it is used for the kernel, but Michael Stefaniuc has used it for Wine specific bugs as well.
Everyone has mentioned students but I don't think that should be an issue. Anyone can use OpenOffice. When I was in school we managed to use WP5.1 and it was no big deal.
The thing I would worry about are the teachers. My guess is that the teachers won't even consider switching.
If the teachers are willing to try, then I say go for it.
You are right to say it's probably a bad idea to give UI processes an artificial boost. This patch doesn't exactly work like that.
Before, the scheduler put processes that hogged the CPU in batch mode. They got bigger chunks of the CPU time but they had to wait longer for it as well.
With this patch if a lot of processes are waiting for a different process then that process should get CPU time with out waiting as long. On the other hand, if the process ends up taking a long time, it gets put into batch mode.
So a lot if a lot of windows are waiting for a response from X then X gets the CPU without waiting. Since X doesn't hog the CPU for a long time it doesn't get put into batch mode.
On the other hand, when you compile the kernel make is waiting for gcc to finish, but gcc uses a lot of CPU time so it gets put into batch mode.
It's a pretty clever idea. It speeds up playing mp3s at the command line instead of just trying to boots whatever is at the front of the screen (a la Windows).
The problem that MDI and tabs address is handling many windows at the same time. Obviously someone thought MDI is a worthwhile solution, but I do not. New users are continually losing their documents in an MDI interface. Even experienced users are sometimes confused by which minimize button goes with which nested window.
Tabs on the other hand, are somewhat useful. I like my editor to have tabs a column of tabs down the right side. It is easy to cut and paste between tabs or compare different code.
On the other hand, with a browser it is difficult to put a big column of tabs on the side because screen space is much more precious. Safari uses a column of tabs even though it takes up a lot of space. Mozilla puts the tabs at the top, but they end up being cramped.
I don't use tabs on my browser. It is configured so that every window opens to the entire screen. When I right click on any title bar that lowers the window to the very back. To go through all my windows I just throw my mouse to the top of the screen and right click repeatedly. This is much faster than typing alt-tab.
I have 11 windows open. It is easy to access any of the windows quickly, but right now this window is able to use the entire screen.
One SCO executive said suing a fellow Linux vendor would be suicide. IBM isn't exactly a Linux vendor but it is still suicide. I hope they succeed die quickly.
Also I want to apologize to Maureen O'Gara. She was more accurate than she knew.
Actually, that is not correct. They have a choice between 3a, or 3b. Boing is comercial so they cannot use 3c.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
Two years ago, there were three tools to configure the task bar. You could right click and get some configuration options, or there were two other configuration utilities as part of Gnome Configurator.
The configuration tool let you change the colour of the task bar border. The second let you change the colour of the inside part. The third configuration tool was for if you wanted to use a bitmap instead of a colour.
Two of the three tools let you move the bar to a different side of the screen. One of the tools let you choose from five pre-set sizes for the task bar and the other let you scale it through a range of sizes. If I remember correctly the right click tool that let you decide whether you wanted to slide in and out.
Those were the good old days. Choices within choices. And everything came with a free surprise.
Slashdot Mirror
Who else is going to sue them for the SCO IP rights which SCO phoned Matt Szulik about?
The paragraph implies that other people might sue RedHat besides just SCO, but certainly SCO thinks RedHat is infringing. (Don't forget of course, that Red Hat is SCO's biggest competitor).
If you want to talk about inflammatory comments then read the article again. The only thing they could have said worse would be to threaten Mandrake and Debian as well. Their ealier comments comparing Linux to a bicycle were designed to piss people off.
That looks like a clear statement that they plan to sue RedHat and SuSE after the IBM lawsuit.
>> since it would then own the base patents for all current OSes
Actually SCO doesn't own a single patent. They only claim that IBM stole their secret techniques...
If the sword really swung both ways, then someone would be suing Bill Gates or Steve Balmer personally.
>>that line about the Xbox's color scheme just boggles the mind.
I agreed completely with the author aobut the XBox color scheme. The game cube is deliberately much more gender neutral.
I wouldn't be surprised if samba + linux was more reliable than Windows + SMB.
It is interesting that more people are paid to work full time on SAMBA than work on the windows implementation. But obviously Microsoft has an easier job because they don't have to worry about reverse engineering all the new changes to the protocol.
>Canada and the States are really not easy to tell apart.
That's easy. Canada is on top and the US is on the bottom.
Social security numbers are not random.
The first 3 digits come from the zip code where you were born. The next 2 are a "group id" that may be a little bit random, but it doesn't change very often. The last 4 are just incremented for each new ssn. In this case only the most significant bit matters so it's easy to guess.
Obviously the last name is not even a secret.
"elite hacker for all that is good".
I was initially skeptical of Keith Packard's fork but after reading his email, I support it. He addressed the issues that I have been complaining about for years.
KeithP is one of the few people who could make a fork work.
I have a hard time with David Wexelblat who doesn't work on XFree86 and doesn't even believe in it, insulting one of the key developers.
Because it runs on MySQL.
I hack on Smatch which is quite similar to the Reasoning software.
The cool thing about smatch as oposed to lint etc is that you can look for bugs specific to your codebase. For example, in the Linux kernel you are not allowed to call copy_to_user with a spin_lock held.
It's pretty simple to throw together a smatch script that looks for that kind of bug.
I'm not sure how useful writing specific checks like that is for smaller projects, but for a huge project like the linux kernel, you are always going to find bugs.
And of course some of the smatch checks can be generalized for all programs. For example, no one likes to leak memory.
I have to toot on my own trumpet.
Check out kbugs.org. These are the smatch results from testing the 2.5.65 kernel. We found 1400 possible bugs in the 2.5.65 kernel but probably over half of those are false positives.
Smatch is an open source checker that finds similar sorts of problems to the Reasoning software. For example, both look for dereference bugs.
The bad news is that smatch is still in the pre-alpha stages and it only works on C for now. And also the kbugs.org site is crappy.
The cool thing about smatch is that you can write checks which are custom to your code. Mostly it is used for the kernel, but Michael Stefaniuc has used it for Wine specific bugs as well.
oops...
I accidentally held shift and enter at the same time.
just put a blasted alarm clock in them...
Sheesh.
Everyone has mentioned students but I don't think that should be an issue. Anyone can use OpenOffice. When I was in school we managed to use WP5.1 and it was no big deal.
The thing I would worry about are the teachers. My guess is that the teachers won't even consider switching.
If the teachers are willing to try, then I say go for it.
You are right to say it's probably a bad idea to give UI processes an artificial boost. This patch doesn't exactly work like that.
Before, the scheduler put processes that hogged the CPU in batch mode. They got bigger chunks of the CPU time but they had to wait longer for it as well.
With this patch if a lot of processes are waiting for a different process then that process should get CPU time with out waiting as long. On the other hand, if the process ends up taking a long time, it gets put into batch mode.
So a lot if a lot of windows are waiting for a response from X then X gets the CPU without waiting. Since X doesn't hog the CPU for a long time it doesn't get put into batch mode.
On the other hand, when you compile the kernel make is waiting for gcc to finish, but gcc uses a lot of CPU time so it gets put into batch mode.
It's a pretty clever idea. It speeds up playing mp3s at the command line instead of just trying to boots whatever is at the front of the screen (a la Windows).
The problem that MDI and tabs address is handling many windows at the same time. Obviously someone thought MDI is a worthwhile solution, but I do not. New users are continually losing their documents in an MDI interface. Even experienced users are sometimes confused by which minimize button goes with which nested window.
Tabs on the other hand, are somewhat useful. I like my editor to have tabs a column of tabs down the right side. It is easy to cut and paste between tabs or compare different code.
On the other hand, with a browser it is difficult to put a big column of tabs on the side because screen space is much more precious. Safari uses a column of tabs even though it takes up a lot of space. Mozilla puts the tabs at the top, but they end up being cramped.
I don't use tabs on my browser. It is configured so that every window opens to the entire screen. When I right click on any title bar that lowers the window to the very back. To go through all my windows I just throw my mouse to the top of the screen and right click repeatedly. This is much faster than typing alt-tab.
I have 11 windows open. It is easy to access any of the windows quickly, but right now this window is able to use the entire screen.
One SCO executive said suing a fellow Linux vendor would be suicide. IBM isn't exactly a Linux vendor but it is still suicide. I hope they succeed die quickly.
Also I want to apologize to Maureen O'Gara. She was more accurate than she knew.
>> So, we have learned that the writer of the article has no idea that the problem with M$ is its paternalistic attitude.
"Luke, I am your father."
Two years ago, there were three tools to configure the task bar. You could right click and get some configuration options, or there were two other configuration utilities as part of Gnome Configurator.
The configuration tool let you change the colour of the task bar border. The second let you change the colour of the inside part. The third configuration tool was for if you wanted to use a bitmap instead of a colour.
Two of the three tools let you move the bar to a different side of the screen. One of the tools let you choose from five pre-set sizes for the task bar and the other let you scale it through a range of sizes. If I remember correctly the right click tool that let you decide whether you wanted to slide in and out.
Those were the good old days. Choices within choices. And everything came with a free surprise.
One type of check they did was for null dereferences. Here is a list of possible NULL dereferences for the 2.5.60 kernel.
This is from the Smatch project.
I remember reading the article a couple years ago. It's funny to think that these days people would think it was fake.
It took me a full 15 seconds to figure out that "psots" was not some hip new acronym.