As shown by this article, Microsoft is dedicated to freedom of information and sharing, while Linux is all about secrecy and locking information away! Boy did you Slashdot nerds bet on the wrong pony!
Maybe it changes the situation a little bit given that they are distributing software which says "GPLv2 or any later version" (quite a good lot of GPL software, including the GNU stuff)? Just a thought.
At any rate, it doesn't matter what their private deals with Novell state. If you agree to two licenses which contradict each other, that's your own fault, and doesn't mean you can break one of them. If MS start distributing GPLv3 software then they must comply to its terms, irrelevant of its other deals.
Competition is good in any marketplace. This is why it's been awful to go through two decades of MS lockin. Finally we are seeing serious inroads into the monopoly.
I think the people who complain probably won't be getting one themselves. Complaints are still legitimate when thousands of other people are being locked into such deals. In the very general sense, when a "bad" product which/.ers complain about (and don't purchase) is taken up by the mass market, it adversely affects everyone else too (in the way that arguably Windows, DOC and MP3 format, etc, have).
You must be having some effect. I saw on the Australian satirical show The Chaser's War on Everything, they went around making fun of people's "joke T-shirts".
One fellow they interviewed had a shirt which read, "Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
I think it becomes political when said company has enough power to influence governments, laws, international markets, and the majority of the developed world's population.
This man has such an excitingly eloquent and passionate way of speaking. He is devoted to his cause and he makes you think about things in a whole new light. Truly a great man. I hope that more people will hear what he has to say.
Funny how sure he is that MS (or "The Monopoly") will be beaten by this community. I believe him.. but I'm not sure "we win" yet!
Your comment has missed the point of not only Eben Moglen's speech, but the GPL and the entire free software movement.
Sounds like the GPL is moving away from a distributor and developer license and closer to an EULA. A point he made very early on - which I really liked by the way because I haven't heard it explained like this before - is that the GPL is *not* a EULA. EULAs add additional terms on top of normal copyright. The GPL takes copyright and subtracts terms from it. The GPL does not add any restrictions on top of what normal unlicensed copyright offers. If you violate or disagree to its terms, it defaults back to regular copyright.
Secondly the GPL never was, and still isn't, an end user license. It still applies just to distributors and developers.
What's next, FSF DRM that forces all your code open? I know that's a joke, but it's insulting to the ideals of the free software movement. Once again, the GPL is about giving users choice - additional rights on top of copyright.
Furthermore, I believe GPLv2 effectively said that as well. It just wasn't specific enough about hardware signing so they got away with it - once again breaking the "spirit" of the GPL.
As far as I can tell, GPLv3 is exactly the same intention as v2; it has the same spirit; it just embodies that spirit in a more legally-binding way.
Well, sort of. The passage does say "memory structures" so it isn't taking it totally out of context per se. But applying it to imply that Reiser was thinking about death (or whatever the author is implying here) is a bit odd and out of context, especially since he concluded the entire 5 page article with this random quote which implies he is guilty.
I'm quite confused because the author seemed to be portraying Reiser as innocent up until that point.
Interesting that they found this passage in the program too. Death is mentioned an awful lot in computer science really. We speak of "killing" processes and the like.
Read the whole article. It gets really creepy and bizzarre... like when they start talking about brainwashing the kid and so on. The wife sounds really creepy.. but who knows, it was quite one-sided. Except for the end, interestingly enough.
While he launches into the intricacies of database science, I'm thinking, "Where is the front passenger seat of your car?" He has never explained this. It seems a fundamental hole in his defense. But he won't stop talking. When I try to interrupt, he insists I let him finish. It's as if the file system holds all the answers.
So I take the hint, and that night, in my office, I start scouring the 80,496 lines of the Reiser4 source code. Eventually I stumble across a passage that starts at line 78,077. It's not part of the program itself -- it's an annotation, a piece of non-executable text in plain English. It's there for the benefit of someone who has chosen to read this far into the code. The passage explains how memory structures are born, grow, and eventually die. It concludes: "Death is a complex process." Crazy... does anyone know what the text of the passage is? I searched for "Death is a complex process" on Google code search, Koders, and Codase; got nothing...
Go to http://silverlight.net/ and click the "Silverlight in action" link on the right hand side. Then tell me that Flash still has them beat;) Bit of a problem here, see... I can't watch this video because it's a shitty proprietary Microsoft video format, and I'm on Linux. If they really wanted to advertise Silverlight in a portable manner, I'd recommend a Flash video.
Hahaha. Yeah, I was always confused, "what's this information superhighway thing, and how is it different from the Internet". Now I know... buzzword-compliant!
You make a persuasive argument. I think my points though are as follows:
Thinking about it, software licencing is much more like insurance or rental or a service contract than purchasing. You don't actually purchase the software; you can't sell it or modify it, all you can do is use it and get it fixed when it goes wrong. 1. True it is. You say you need to give the milkman your details if you want milk delivered. True, but I prefer to go to the store and buy milk rather than have it delivered. You speak of a service. My milk is a PRODUCT. Products are better for consumers (or at least, it's best if consumers have a choice). Software used to be a product. Now it is a service, just because it can be. This isn't good for consumers.
2. The milkman needs my address so he can get to my house. Insurance companies need a lot of details because they're actually going to be paying for repairs, I think they're entitled to know why. With Microsoft we're talking about providing software for download. MS aren't paying you anything. They certainly don't NEED your details in order to provide the service. Out of all the examples you gave, MS has the least need to know.
3. The complaint about WGA being spyware goes beyond the fact it collects personal information. It's the fact that you're forced to have this software running on your computer at all. It's your computer. You should decide what software you run. As it is, they act like since you installed their OS, they can decide what you do with your computer.
(Hell, what do I care, I switched to Ubuntu a couple of months back) Yeah me too...:p
This is correct, and nobody can flame MS for preventing access to services which they didn't pay for.
The problem I and I think many other people have with this arrangement is that WGA is (or was) an optional service - it is now of course mandatory. That service is required to PROVE you are a customer. So not only do you have to be a paying customer, but you also have to prove it using this service.
And the root of the problem is that this "service" (WGA) is commonly known to phone home without informing the user and take various other measures which are commonly affiliated with spyware.
Exactly. There is a fundamental difference between losing something and not gaining something. This difference is embodied in the law which specifies that theft and intellectual property crimes/torts are separate. The only thing that isn't making this distinction is that shitty/misleading MPAA ad.
And as someone pointed out on/. last time this story surfaced, she probably could have gotten a lesser jail term if she murdered a couple of the kids and the judge.
BUT WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
Seriously I hope this poor woman gets off and can try to pick up the tatters of her career, ruined by an appalling legal system in a frightened state.
I don't think it does, but at least switching to OOo means this won't happen again in the future, while switching to Office 07 means you're just taking another step on the MS treadmill.
Slashdot Mirror
As shown by this article, Microsoft is dedicated to freedom of information and sharing, while Linux is all about secrecy and locking information away! Boy did you Slashdot nerds bet on the wrong pony!
Maybe it changes the situation a little bit given that they are distributing software which says "GPLv2 or any later version" (quite a good lot of GPL software, including the GNU stuff)? Just a thought.
At any rate, it doesn't matter what their private deals with Novell state. If you agree to two licenses which contradict each other, that's your own fault, and doesn't mean you can break one of them. If MS start distributing GPLv3 software then they must comply to its terms, irrelevant of its other deals.
Competition is good in any marketplace. This is why it's been awful to go through two decades of MS lockin. Finally we are seeing serious inroads into the monopoly.
I think the people who complain probably won't be getting one themselves. Complaints are still legitimate when thousands of other people are being locked into such deals. In the very general sense, when a "bad" product which /.ers complain about (and don't purchase) is taken up by the mass market, it adversely affects everyone else too (in the way that arguably Windows, DOC and MP3 format, etc, have).
You must be having some effect. I saw on the Australian satirical show The Chaser's War on Everything, they went around making fun of people's "joke T-shirts".
:p
One fellow they interviewed had a shirt which read, "Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
They didn't get it.
I think it becomes political when said company has enough power to influence governments, laws, international markets, and the majority of the developed world's population.
This man has such an excitingly eloquent and passionate way of speaking. He is devoted to his cause and he makes you think about things in a whole new light. Truly a great man. I hope that more people will hear what he has to say.
.. but I'm not sure "we win" yet!
Funny how sure he is that MS (or "The Monopoly") will be beaten by this community. I believe him
Your comment has missed the point of not only Eben Moglen's speech, but the GPL and the entire free software movement. Sounds like the GPL is moving away from a distributor and developer license and closer to an EULA. A point he made very early on - which I really liked by the way because I haven't heard it explained like this before - is that the GPL is *not* a EULA. EULAs add additional terms on top of normal copyright. The GPL takes copyright and subtracts terms from it. The GPL does not add any restrictions on top of what normal unlicensed copyright offers. If you violate or disagree to its terms, it defaults back to regular copyright.
Secondly the GPL never was, and still isn't, an end user license. It still applies just to distributors and developers. What's next, FSF DRM that forces all your code open? I know that's a joke, but it's insulting to the ideals of the free software movement. Once again, the GPL is about giving users choice - additional rights on top of copyright.
Furthermore, I believe GPLv2 effectively said that as well. It just wasn't specific enough about hardware signing so they got away with it - once again breaking the "spirit" of the GPL.
As far as I can tell, GPLv3 is exactly the same intention as v2; it has the same spirit; it just embodies that spirit in a more legally-binding way.
Thanks very much for pasting that.
It looks like a very detailed and slightly-humorous explanation of what really is a complex process. I wouldn't exactly link it to murder...
Well, sort of. The passage does say "memory structures" so it isn't taking it totally out of context per se. But applying it to imply that Reiser was thinking about death (or whatever the author is implying here) is a bit odd and out of context, especially since he concluded the entire 5 page article with this random quote which implies he is guilty.
I'm quite confused because the author seemed to be portraying Reiser as innocent up until that point.
Interesting that they found this passage in the program too. Death is mentioned an awful lot in computer science really. We speak of "killing" processes and the like.
I didn't particularly want to find line 78,077...
So I take the hint, and that night, in my office, I start scouring the 80,496 lines of the Reiser4 source code. Eventually I stumble across a passage that starts at line 78,077. It's not part of the program itself -- it's an annotation, a piece of non-executable text in plain English. It's there for the benefit of someone who has chosen to read this far into the code. The passage explains how memory structures are born, grow, and eventually die. It concludes: "Death is a complex process." Crazy
So... what you're saying is it's a measure of how closed off the codebase is? And Vista beat Linux? No way!
Oh the irony...
Hahaha. Yeah, I was always confused, "what's this information superhighway thing, and how is it different from the Internet". Now I know ... buzzword-compliant!
Remember "surfing the net" - that expression was popular+annoying back in the 90s. Thank god that's deceased.
I can't GET any damn Kool-Aid©, I need to be an OEM and sign a non-disclosure agreement!
2. The milkman needs my address so he can get to my house. Insurance companies need a lot of details because they're actually going to be paying for repairs, I think they're entitled to know why. With Microsoft we're talking about providing software for download. MS aren't paying you anything. They certainly don't NEED your details in order to provide the service. Out of all the examples you gave, MS has the least need to know.
3. The complaint about WGA being spyware goes beyond the fact it collects personal information. It's the fact that you're forced to have this software running on your computer at all. It's your computer. You should decide what software you run. As it is, they act like since you installed their OS, they can decide what you do with your computer. (Hell, what do I care, I switched to Ubuntu a couple of months back) Yeah me too...
RIAA runs Linux!??
How will they play DRM-protected music and video formats?
This is correct, and nobody can flame MS for preventing access to services which they didn't pay for.
The problem I and I think many other people have with this arrangement is that WGA is (or was) an optional service - it is now of course mandatory. That service is required to PROVE you are a customer. So not only do you have to be a paying customer, but you also have to prove it using this service.
And the root of the problem is that this "service" (WGA) is commonly known to phone home without informing the user and take various other measures which are commonly affiliated with spyware.
Exactly. There is a fundamental difference between losing something and not gaining something. This difference is embodied in the law which specifies that theft and intellectual property crimes/torts are separate. The only thing that isn't making this distinction is that shitty/misleading MPAA ad.
And as someone pointed out on /. last time this story surfaced, she probably could have gotten a lesser jail term if she murdered a couple of the kids and the judge.
BUT WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
Seriously I hope this poor woman gets off and can try to pick up the tatters of her career, ruined by an appalling legal system in a frightened state.
I don't think it does, but at least switching to OOo means this won't happen again in the future, while switching to Office 07 means you're just taking another step on the MS treadmill.