It is complete hypocrisy for the OSS crowd to support this sort of extortion and at the same time condemn the SCO lawsuit.
No, there is a difference. Eolas has an actual patent, and is enforcing it according to the rules ; they got a verdict in court that says MS is infringing, and are stating their terms to bring MS into compliance.
SCO, as far as anyone can tell, is making crap up based on no sound legal theory anyone has heard of (one day it's contract dispute, next day it's copyright infringement, and apparently they think "know-how"is a form of intellectual property) and expecting people to fork over money for a license (or, alternately, buy their stock).
Why do these people think they can get away with it?
The same reason spammers think they can get away with putting "This is not spam" in their emails; because they have zero respect for the people they're calling. They think you're too dumb/gullible to protest.
Should I report them?
Well, it's easy for me to spend your money on lawyers on your behalf, but I'd say yes. The Do Not Call list will only be effective if it's enforced. If telemarketers can wink and nod and go on about their business, then all of this hoopla is for nothing.
The bulk of this crowd is representative of the core of his support: upper-middle class, white, educated, young angry Bush Haters. An interview here will just be preaching to the choir, tossing softball questions to be moderated up,
Yes, and that in and of itself is typical of candidates for President.
Candidates do two types of appearances: One for the faithful, to drum up volunteers and other support (especially the kind that says "In God We Trust", and I'm not talking about hymnals) and the other for the swing voters, the ones that might vote for the candidate. but aren't sure. Most candidates won't waste their effort on constiuencies or districts that they're never going to any votes from.
As someone who's actually interested in the SCO proceedings (I mean, if I wasn't I'd just uncheck the "Caldera" box in my user prefs, right?) This is the "4 times a day" schedule to date this month:
SCO's Roadshow Coming Soon (On September 30th, 2003 with 231 comments) Ransom Love, Caldera Co-Founder Interviewed (On September 26th, 2003 with 237 comments) IBM Adds SCO Counterclaim Charging Copyright Infringement (On September 26th, 2003 with 738 comments) SCO's Plan Examined (On September 25th, 2003 with 576 comments) HP Clarifies Indemnification Offer For Linux Users (On September 24th, 2003 with 274 comments) HP Offers Linux Purchasers Indemnification (On September 24th, 2003 with 326 comments) Groklaw Sends A Dear Darl Letter (On September 20th, 2003 with 268 comments) SCO Claims $15,300,000 From SCOsource (On September 16th, 2003 with 404 comments) SCO Volleys to Red Hat (On September 16th, 2003 with 469 comments) More on SCO Code Snippets (On September 14th, 2003 with 339 comments) Linus to SCO: 'Please Grow Up' (On September 11th, 2003 with 1163 comments) Back To SCO (On September 10th, 2003 with 560 comments) ESR to Shred SCO Claims? (On September 9th, 2003 with 554 comments) SCO's Open Letter to Open Source Community (On September 9th, 2003 with 724 comments) SCO Run-Time Licenses: Get 'em While They're Hot! (On September 8th, 2003 with 587 comments) More Criticism of SCO's Claims To UNIX (On September 6th, 2003 with 400 comments) SCO's Next Target: SGI? (On September 5th, 2003 with 338 comments)
17 whole stories. Throw in two or three Slashbacks or Ask Slashdots to make it a round number, and we have 20 stores in 30 days. Now, let's look at August. I mean, maybe the frenzied stories have been dying down:
SCO Roundup (On August 30th, 2003 with 471 comments) SCO Says It Has No Plan To Sue Linux Companies ( On August 28th, 2003 with 478 comments) SCO DOS Harming Innocent Bystanders (On August 28th, 2003 with 422 comments) SCO Says IBM is Beating Up on Them (On August 22nd, 2003 with 1133 comments) SCO: Code Proof Analyzed, Linus Interviewed (On August 20th, 2003 with 890 comments) Samba Team Points Out SCO's Hypocrisy (On August 20th, 2003 with 612 comments) Open Source Community Approaches SCO (On August 19th, 2003 with 521 comments) SCO: FSF Reply To GPL Claims, Conference Sponsors Back Off? (On August 18th, 2003 with 580 comments) RMS on SCO, Distributions, DRM (On August 17th, 2003 with 711 comments) OSDL Releases Q&A on SCO Legal Actions (On August 14th, 2003 with 285 comments) SCO Attorney Declares GPL Invalid (On August 14th, 2003 with 1137 comments) SCO Announces Final Termination of IBM's Licence (On August 13th, 2003 with 807 comments) SCO Execs Dumping Stock (On August 12th, 2003 with 691 comments) FSF, GCC, and SCO Compiler Support (On August 12th, 2003 with 525 comments) SCO: Fortune 500 Company Buys License, IBM Retort (On August 11th, 2003 with 557 comments) SCO Calls IBM Countersuit "Unsubstantiated Allegations" (On August 8th, 2003 with 972 comments) IBM Countersues SCO, And More! (On August 7th, 2003 with 1156 comments) SCO Targets US Government, TiVo (On August 6th, 2003 with 1539 comments) SCO Wants $699 for Linux Systems (On August 5th, 2003 with 1659 comments) SCO "Disappointed" by Red Hat Lawsuit (On August 5th, 2003 with 778 comments) Red Hat Sues SCO, Sets Up Legal Fund (On August 4th, 2003 with 787 comments) OSDL Position Paper on SCO and Linux (On August 1st, 2003 with 421 comments)
Hmm, a little bit better, 21 stories in 31 days. And we've got some of the juicy nuggets of the story to date, so far.
Because./ posting seems not like lots of short lines, I'll just summarize the first months of the SCO/IBM lawsuit: 6(!) stories in July, 14 in June and 5(!) stories for May.
63 stories in 153 days =.41 stories per day. Why, that's not even 1 story every other day! If you wanted to be ge
Start the installer; it asks you to read and "I Agree" to the GPL, then takes you to a "what do you want to install?" page. (Exodus does not install SSL support by default, but it's not essential.)
It asks you which folder you want it stored in, do you want shortcuts on the desktop, blah blah bkah -- basically the same install as 99% of the other crap that people install on Windows every day. It seems to me if people can get KaZaa installed, they can install Exodus.
When you launch Exodus for the first time, it asks you for a username. It pre-selects "jabber.org" as your jabber server, asks you to enter a password, and has a checkbox to save your password.
I fill in the username "TrentCtest" and my password, check the "save password" box, and try to connect.
Exodus tells me there is no account by that name, and asks if I would like to register it.
I Click "OK", and it tells me my new Jabber account is registered, and asks if I would like to fill out additional registration information. I decline.
Gee, connecting to Jabber doesn't seem to be any more difficult than connecting to Yahoo and MSN Messenger, and people seem to install those every day as well.
Apparently you don't use the Yahoo! IM service. It's to the point I keep the client on a hidden virtual desktop since I don't like my boss walking by and seeing an IM from S3XXEEmama69 inviting me to view her webcam for $3.99/minute.
I do, and I never see those ads. That's because I installed Yahoo's crappy client long enough to check the "Ignore anyone who is not on my Friend list"; I believe that info is stored server-side, because I never seem them whem I am (er, was) using Gaim.
Basically, if you subscribe to my presence notification (and I allow it -- Jabber gives you control over who can receive your presence information), then when I log in, my jabber server sends you and everyone else on my presence list a "jelmore@jabber.org has signed in"-type message. Presence information is handled by the jabber server, which provides some of the "centralization" you're looking for.
Programming Jabber from O'Reilly does a good job of explaining how Jabber works.
It's not Congress, it's the people who opt-out. Congress merely gave people the power to opt-out. How is that unfair to the industry? Hell, the industry should be glad! That's 50 Million phone calls they don't have to make because those people would have said "No" anyway.
The sad thing is, that's not the case. Telemarketing is successful because they reach people who are submissive, insecure, mentally deficient, or elderly -- people who would have a hard time saying "no" to a telemarketer.
If those people start joining the DNC list, a large portion of telemarketers' revenue will go away. (Ahd pesonally I couldn't be happier.)
According to beyondunreal.com, 2004 will have a Linux Client.
Yes, and Neverwinter Nights was supposed to be a simultaneous release for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Lots of press releases early on about how great things were going on all three platforms, then mysteriously, it seemed like the MacOS and Linux clients were falling behind. But don't worry, we're making progress, they might just be delayed until after the box ships.
As it turned out, they hadn't really started either client. Even though there are Linux and MacOS versions now, neither come with the Aurora toolset -- you can only play the game, not create your own modules. (At least you can use your Windows purchase on Linux for the CD key; you have to go and buy the MacOS version all over again!)
So think long and hard about "supporting" companies that "support" us. I'll believe in UT2004 for Linux when I see it, and not one second before.
From the same site that you just mindlessly grabed these advisories off of:
[29 Aug 2003] DSA-375 node - buffer overflow, format string For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.3.0a-2woody1. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 0.3.2-1.
[26 Aug 2003] DSA-374 libpam-smb - buffer overflow For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.1.6-1.1woody1. The unstable distribution (sid) does not contain a libpam-smb package.
[26 Aug 2003] DSA-344 unzip - directory traversal (new revision) For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 5.50-1woody2. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 5.50-3.
[18 Aug 2003] DSA-364 man-db - buffer overflows, arbitrary command execution (new revision) For the current stable distribution (woody), these problems have been fixed in version 2.3.20-18.woody.4. For the unstable distribution (sid), these problems have been fixed in version 2.4.1-13.
[16 Aug 2003] DSA-373 autorespond - buffer overflow For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 2.0.2-2woody1. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem will be fixed soon.
[16 Aug 2003] DSA-372 netris - buffer overflow For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5-4woody1. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 0.52-1.
[13 Aug 2003] DSA-358 linux-kernel-2.4.18 - several vulnerabilities (new revision) This advisory covers only the i386 and alpha architectures. Other architectures will be covered by separate advisories. For the stable distribution (woody) on the i386 architecture, these problems have been fixed in kernel-source-2.4.18 version 2.4.18-13, kernel-image-2.4.18-1-i386 version 2.4.18-11, and kernel-image-2.4.18-i386bf version 2.4.18-5woody4. For the stable distribution (woody) on the alpha architecture, these problems have been fixed in kernel-source-2.4.18 version 2.4.18-13 and kernel-image-2.4.18-1-alpha version 2.4.18-10. For the unstable distribution (sid) these problems are fixed in kernel-source-2.4.20 version 2.4.20-9.
[11 Aug 2003] DSA-371 perl - cross-site scripting For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 5.6.1-8.3. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 5.8.0-19.
[09 Aug 2003] DSA-361 kdelibs, kdelibs-crypto - several vulnerabilities (new revision) For the current stable distribution (woody) these problems have been fixed in version 2.2.2-13.woody.8 of kdelibs and 2.2.2-6woody2 of kdelibs-crypto. For the unstable distribution (sid) these problems have been fixed in kdelibs version 4:3.1.3-1. The unstable distribution does not contain a separate kdelibs-crypto package.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-370 pam-pgsql - format string For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5.2-3woody1. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5.2-7.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-369 zblast - buffer overflow For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.2pre-5woody2. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 1.2.1-7.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-368 xpcd - buffer overflow For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 2.08-8woody1. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem will be fixed soon.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-367 xtokkaetama - buffer overflow For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.0b-6woody2. For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 1.0b-9.
Of the two highlighted advisories which do not have fixes available, one is an autoresponder for qmail (which is not installed by default) and the other is a collection of tools for working with PhotoCDs (also not installed by default).
For those of you who like to throw DMCA around like a big, evil boogeyman, last time I checked, reverse-engineering for the purposes of interoperability is allowed by the DMCA.
But it does make me wonder if perhaps the Babelfish in HHGTTG didn't actually work that well. Thanks to the fish, no one ever bothered to learn anyone else's languages, but how do they know it's an accurate translation? Maybe the fish doesn't do any better than our poor software-based fish, but the bad grammar was fixed by the character's brains/the editor. At least it's amusing to think of all the aliens communicating in babelfish-like translations.
No, if you've read the book, you'd know that the fact the babelfish did in fact translate people's meaning and intent perfectly was why it led to larger wars and more violence than any other cause in history:)
How is it Microsoft's fault if users run the attachment?
When Microsoft sets the default options so that arbitrary code can be executed, counting that non-technical users will not bother to change default behaviors, yes it is their fault.
Is it Linus Torvalds' fault when there's a sendmail hole? Is that suddenly a "Linux hole?"
No, when it's an exploit affecting an independant application that runs on (and affects) multiple platforms, then it's a "sendmail hole". If it's a exploit in actual kernel code, then it's a "Linux hole".
If it's an exploit that only affects a software component when it's running on a specific platform -- for example, the privilege separation issue in OpenSSH a while back that primarily affected non-OpenBSD platforms -- it's an "OpenSSH for Linux hole".
If it's an exploit in a software component that Microsoft has integrated into its OS and does not affect (or even run on) any other platform, then it's a "Windows hole".
However, in the software section they did have SUSE 8.2 and Redhat 9 for sale. **--BUT--**, they had ALL the Linux boxes in the section displayed as "UTILITIES".... That was right next to the display "OPERATING SYSTEMS" that was loaded to the gills with XP boxes. So, they are misleading people by the way they present the product. People that have no knowledge of Linux, and most people fall into this category, would not look at the Linux boxes because they are mislabeled as "utilities" rather than as a operating system, which it *IS*..
That's a problem with that particular store. I can tell you for a fact that in my store, all of our Linux/BSD stuff is sitting right next to Windows. I remember when I started working at Fry's almost three years ago, we had Linux on the utilities aisle with our "server operating systems", including Windows 2000 Server upgrades; they shouldn't be there now. That store probably never rearranged the shelves so they were in their proper place.
Fry's is guilty of something here, I would wager that they did this under the direction of an M$ memo... I pointed out the misleading displays to a manager and got a shrug and a dumb look. A month later nothing had changed.
Sorry, MS doesn't dictate any of our merchandising outside of maybe paying for product placement on an endcap. Our buyers and district managers are in my store every three months and if we were guilty of violating such direction, they didn't say anything to us about it, and beleive me, they would.
If you want to buy a machine without M$ on it from Fry's you have to DEMAND it, they will resist but they will cave in if you hammer the shit out of them. They'll give you ThizLinux, you can Thiz it out the window or Thiz it across the room into the circular file and load a good distro of your choice. But don't let them BS you into XP..
Um, all of our machines other than that ThizLinux box come preloaded. So yes, if you want something else, you're going to have to pay to have it installed.
And if you want a boxed, retail distro, get Suse or Redhat there. I just wish they would put Mandrake on the shelf too, I would buy it.
And I would sell it, but until I was out shopping today I had never seen a box for Mandrake 9.1 (the last I saw was 9.0); I'll inquire into it tomorrow and find out why we don't have it.
I don't know why it seems to be so hard for these stores to do this right. All they need to do is hire one or two people that know what they're doing.
The Fry's I work at has done just that. I know this, because I'm the one they hired with Linux experience.
They could take a regular distribution, Debian, Slack, Redhat, whatever they're good at working on, configure all the hardware properly, setup a user account and a GUI and so forth, with all the normal things that the average user expects at their fingertips.
I'd love it if Fry's did that. I have saved several sales of those ThizLinux boxes (usually when they come looking for a book on Linux) by convincing someone to pick up the $40 Red Hat box and installing that over ThizLinux. And that assumes they don't say "well, I'll just reformat it and put Windows on it then."
If Red Hat, SuSE, Lindows or whoever wants to set up a deal for offering preloads, I invite you to call our corporate office.
Then make a package repository for updates, a disk image for installs, and a short 'getting started' book. Maybe even a live tutorial. None of this would be all that difficult or time consuming to do, given that the code is Free and there's nothing really new here, just applying procedures already well developed.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why the hell should a retail chain be supporting a Linux distro? Isn't that the point of the commerical vendors?
As far as it not being time-consuming or difficult, our IS department is swamped trying to keep our machines upgraded, stable and running. Much of our software is developed in-house, so IS gets to chase down every last "I can't connect to the sales database" and "our POS machine isn't printing quotes"; forget getting them to build an infrastructure for a relatively unknown product that constitutes a fraction of our sales.
As far as a live Linux demo, I'd love it if I could requisition one from computers to do a Linux install on. But the only PC I have to show off Linux on as an old 333MHz machine that even runs Windows dog-slow; not the best choice for demoing Linux, in my opinion. Despite what you might think, most retail stores have a pretty tight policy on "borrowing" saleable product for demos. Every $300 PC I use for a demo is one that we can't sell...
Any demos set up officially by the store would have to be maintained by our IS department; there is another roadblock to Linux adoption. For all the complaints people were making about "clueless users" in the tech support thread, our IS department isn't going to let a non-certified employee touch a store asset, even if I know more about Linux than they do. And the IS tech in my store is a nice guy, but he's not interested in Linux; I've asked. His reponse is something like "I fiddle with machines all day long, I'm not going to do it on my time off!"
Bringing my own PC in is out of the question because our loss prevention department would have kittens. Even if they let me bring in my own PC, I'd probably have to pop the case open every time I took it out of the store to prove that I'm not smuggling stolen hardware out of it. And who pays when some customer breaks my stuff? What about the punk kids who do know about Linux that will gladly demonstrate their l33t skills by trying to trash my setup? No sane employer would cover that kind of liability.
Its a hell of a lot better than the old license. And its not like developers working with Darwin have much of a choice. I mean, who is going to use the APSL on a non Apple derived product?
Heh. The FSF has this to say about the original BSD license; I suspect you would see the same thing happen with APSL2-licensed stuff...
There are many variants of simple non-copyleft free software licenses, including the X10 license, the X11/XFree86 license, the FreeBSD license, and the two BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) licenses. Most of them are equivalent except for details of wording, but the license used for BSD until 1999 had a special problem: the ``obnoxious BSD advertising clause''. It said that every advertisement mentioning the software must include a particular sentence:
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement:
This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
Initially the obnoxious BSD advertising clause was used only in the Berkeley Software Distribution. That did not cause any particular problem, because including one sentence in an ad is not a great practical difficulty.
If other developers who used BSD-like licenses had copied the BSD advertising clause verbatim--including the sentence that refers to the University of California--then they would not have made the problem any bigger.
But, as you might expect, other developers did not copy the clause verbatim. They changed it, replacing ``University of California'' with their own institution or their own names. The result is a plethora of licenses, requiring a plethora of different sentences.
When people put many such programs together in an operating system, the result is a serious problem. Imagine if a software system required 75 different sentences, each one naming a different author or group of authors. To advertise that, you would need a full-page ad.
This might seem like extrapolation ad absurdum, but it is actual fact. NetBSD comes with a long list of different sentences, required by the various licenses for parts of the system. In a 1997 version of NetBSD, I counted 75 of these sentences. I would not be surprised if the list has grown by now. [Remember, this was written in 1998; this has obviously not happened.]
Stowell admitted that his company was still providing Linux source code and security patches on its Web site in order to fulfill support contracts with customers, but he disputed Kuhn's claim. "If our IP [intellectual property] is being found in Linux and that's being done without our say, then I don't think that the GPL can force us not to collect license fees from someone who may be using our intellectual property," he said.
Um, yes it can. The GPL explicitly says so.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
Jay (=
(Who is to say that Caldera-now-SCO didn't authorize it? Wasn't Ransom Love and his whole crew basically forced out in favor of the current Chief Sleazebag Officer and his ilk? I wonder what Love has to say about all of this; I smell an interview opportunity...)
The default font (at least every time I installed X) is always *tiny* on my screen. No matter how hard I tried, when I changed settings, it never seemed to work.
This is modded as "Insightful"?
So far as I know, "X" doesn't have a default font. Many window managers and desktop environments do, though; which one are you using?
What is your screen resolution set to? X comes with sets of bitmapped fonts set to 75 DPI and 100 DPI.
What are you doing to change the default font? Some Linux distributions have their own font registry (Debian's defoma comes to mind) independant from a given window manager/desktop enironment. Some programs have their own font handling(!), so changing a default font in a desktop enivronment may not affect how that program handles fonts.
(Sorry if I seem like I'm griping at you; it's more directed at the moderators you were either hitting the crack pipe, or trying to crapflood the discussion...)
Slashdot Mirror
It is complete hypocrisy for the OSS crowd to support this sort of extortion and at the same time condemn the SCO lawsuit.
No, there is a difference. Eolas has an actual patent, and is enforcing it according to the rules ; they got a verdict in court that says MS is infringing, and are stating their terms to bring MS into compliance.
SCO, as far as anyone can tell, is making crap up based on no sound legal theory anyone has heard of (one day it's contract dispute, next day it's copyright infringement, and apparently they think "know-how"is a form of intellectual property) and expecting people to fork over money for a license (or, alternately, buy their stock).
Jay (=
Why do these people think they can get away with it?
The same reason spammers think they can get away with putting "This is not spam" in their emails; because they have zero respect for the people they're calling. They think you're too dumb/gullible to protest.
Should I report them?
Well, it's easy for me to spend your money on lawyers on your behalf, but I'd say yes. The Do Not Call list will only be effective if it's enforced. If telemarketers can wink and nod and go on about their business, then all of this hoopla is for nothing.
Jay
Jay (=
...now I don't have to wait weeks or months for those multiplayer cheats to start surfacing, we'll have day-1 multiplayer cheats.
To the 3l33t hAx0Rz who pulled this off, I salute you -- it's a one-fingered salute, but I'm sure my point gets across.
Jay (=
(On the other hand, maybe some enterprising programmers can help Valve work on that long-awaited Linux port...)
The bulk of this crowd is representative of the core of his support: upper-middle class, white, educated, young angry Bush Haters. An interview here will just be preaching to the choir, tossing softball questions to be moderated up,
Yes, and that in and of itself is typical of candidates for President.
Candidates do two types of appearances: One for the faithful, to drum up volunteers and other support (especially the kind that says "In God We Trust", and I'm not talking about hymnals) and the other for the swing voters, the ones that might vote for the candidate. but aren't sure. Most candidates won't waste their effort on constiuencies or districts that they're never going to any votes from.
Jay (=
As someone who's actually interested in the SCO proceedings (I mean, if I wasn't I'd just uncheck the "Caldera" box in my user prefs, right?) This is the "4 times a day" schedule to date this month:
./ posting seems not like lots of short lines, I'll just summarize the first months of the SCO/IBM lawsuit: 6(!) stories in July, 14 in June and 5(!) stories for May.
.41 stories per day. Why, that's not even 1 story every other day! If you wanted to be ge
SCO's Roadshow Coming Soon (On September 30th, 2003 with 231 comments)
Ransom Love, Caldera Co-Founder Interviewed (On September 26th, 2003 with 237 comments)
IBM Adds SCO Counterclaim Charging Copyright Infringement (On September 26th, 2003 with 738 comments)
SCO's Plan Examined (On September 25th, 2003 with 576 comments)
HP Clarifies Indemnification Offer For Linux Users (On September 24th, 2003 with 274 comments)
HP Offers Linux Purchasers Indemnification (On September 24th, 2003 with 326 comments)
Groklaw Sends A Dear Darl Letter (On September 20th, 2003 with 268 comments)
SCO Claims $15,300,000 From SCOsource (On September 16th, 2003 with 404 comments)
SCO Volleys to Red Hat (On September 16th, 2003 with 469 comments)
More on SCO Code Snippets (On September 14th, 2003 with 339 comments)
Linus to SCO: 'Please Grow Up' (On September 11th, 2003 with 1163 comments)
Back To SCO (On September 10th, 2003 with 560 comments)
ESR to Shred SCO Claims? (On September 9th, 2003 with 554 comments)
SCO's Open Letter to Open Source Community (On September 9th, 2003 with 724 comments)
SCO Run-Time Licenses: Get 'em While They're Hot! (On September 8th, 2003 with 587 comments)
More Criticism of SCO's Claims To UNIX (On September 6th, 2003 with 400 comments)
SCO's Next Target: SGI? (On September 5th, 2003 with 338 comments)
17 whole stories. Throw in two or three Slashbacks or Ask Slashdots to make it a round number, and we have 20 stores in 30 days. Now, let's look at August. I mean, maybe the frenzied stories have been dying down:
SCO Roundup (On August 30th, 2003 with 471 comments)
SCO Says It Has No Plan To Sue Linux Companies (
On August 28th, 2003 with 478 comments)
SCO DOS Harming Innocent Bystanders (On August 28th, 2003 with 422 comments)
SCO Says IBM is Beating Up on Them (On August 22nd, 2003 with 1133 comments)
SCO: Code Proof Analyzed, Linus Interviewed (On August 20th, 2003 with 890 comments)
Samba Team Points Out SCO's Hypocrisy (On August 20th, 2003 with 612 comments)
Open Source Community Approaches SCO (On August 19th, 2003 with 521 comments)
SCO: FSF Reply To GPL Claims, Conference Sponsors Back Off? (On August 18th, 2003 with 580 comments)
RMS on SCO, Distributions, DRM (On August 17th, 2003 with 711 comments)
OSDL Releases Q&A on SCO Legal Actions (On August 14th, 2003 with 285 comments)
SCO Attorney Declares GPL Invalid (On August 14th, 2003 with 1137 comments)
SCO Announces Final Termination of IBM's Licence (On August 13th, 2003 with 807 comments)
SCO Execs Dumping Stock (On August 12th, 2003 with 691 comments)
FSF, GCC, and SCO Compiler Support (On August 12th, 2003 with 525 comments)
SCO: Fortune 500 Company Buys License, IBM Retort (On August 11th, 2003 with 557 comments)
SCO Calls IBM Countersuit "Unsubstantiated Allegations" (On August 8th, 2003 with 972 comments)
IBM Countersues SCO, And More! (On August 7th, 2003 with 1156 comments)
SCO Targets US Government, TiVo (On August 6th, 2003 with 1539 comments)
SCO Wants $699 for Linux Systems (On August 5th, 2003 with 1659 comments)
SCO "Disappointed" by Red Hat Lawsuit (On August 5th, 2003 with 778 comments)
Red Hat Sues SCO, Sets Up Legal Fund (On August 4th, 2003 with 787 comments)
OSDL Position Paper on SCO and Linux (On August 1st, 2003 with 421 comments)
Hmm, a little bit better, 21 stories in 31 days. And we've got some of the juicy nuggets of the story to date, so far.
Because
63 stories in 153 days =
Well, let's test that theory. I'll install Exodus on my wife's Windows PC sitting next to me.
Gee, connecting to Jabber doesn't seem to be any more difficult than connecting to Yahoo and MSN Messenger, and people seem to install those every day as well.
Jay (=
Apparently you don't use the Yahoo! IM service. It's to the point I keep the client on a hidden virtual desktop since I don't like my boss walking by and seeing an IM from S3XXEEmama69 inviting me to view her webcam for $3.99/minute.
I do, and I never see those ads. That's because I installed Yahoo's crappy client long enough to check the "Ignore anyone who is not on my Friend list"; I believe that info is stored server-side, because I never seem them whem I am (er, was) using Gaim.
Jay (=
...with the concept of "presence".
Basically, if you subscribe to my presence notification (and I allow it -- Jabber gives you control over who can receive your presence information), then when I log in, my jabber server sends you and everyone else on my presence list a "jelmore@jabber.org has signed in"-type message. Presence information is handled by the jabber server, which provides some of the "centralization" you're looking for.
Programming Jabber from O'Reilly does a good job of explaining how Jabber works.
Jay
It's not Congress, it's the people who opt-out. Congress merely gave people the power to opt-out. How is that unfair to the industry? Hell, the industry should be glad! That's 50 Million phone calls they don't have to make because those people would have said "No" anyway.
The sad thing is, that's not the case. Telemarketing is successful because they reach people who are submissive, insecure, mentally deficient, or elderly -- people who would have a hard time saying "no" to a telemarketer.
If those people start joining the DNC list, a large portion of telemarketers' revenue will go away. (Ahd pesonally I couldn't be happier.)
Jay (=
Really, after they introduced muppets, it was all over.
So you're saying that the only good Star Wars was the first one? Y'know, Yoda was a Muppet in Empire Srikes Back and Return of the Jedi...
(Yeah, yeah, I know, IHBT, but It was too good to pass up.)
Jay (=
According to beyondunreal.com, 2004 will have a Linux Client.
Yes, and Neverwinter Nights was supposed to be a simultaneous release for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Lots of press releases early on about how great things were going on all three platforms, then mysteriously, it seemed like the MacOS and Linux clients were falling behind. But don't worry, we're making progress, they might just be delayed until after the box ships.
As it turned out, they hadn't really started either client. Even though there are Linux and MacOS versions now, neither come with the Aurora toolset -- you can only play the game, not create your own modules. (At least you can use your Windows purchase on Linux for the CD key; you have to go and buy the MacOS version all over again!)
So think long and hard about "supporting" companies that "support" us. I'll believe in UT2004 for Linux when I see it, and not one second before.
Jay (=
Perhaps OO will see Flash support in the future?
OpenOffice does export as Flash, according to tho OpenOffice.org 1.1beta2 Features Page.
You won't be throwing out Macromedia's product any time soon, I gather, but it's probably a good option for those Impress presentations...
Jay (=
The submitter misread the article; those prices are for the TM5700, which HP already sells.
It says right at the bottom of the article that the prices for the new units have not been announced.
Jay (=
From the same site that you just mindlessly grabed these advisories off of:
[29 Aug 2003] DSA-375 node - buffer overflow, format string
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.3.0a-2woody1.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 0.3.2-1.
[26 Aug 2003] DSA-374 libpam-smb - buffer overflow
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.1.6-1.1woody1.
The unstable distribution (sid) does not contain a libpam-smb package.
[26 Aug 2003] DSA-344 unzip - directory traversal (new revision)
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 5.50-1woody2.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 5.50-3.
[18 Aug 2003] DSA-364 man-db - buffer overflows, arbitrary command execution (new revision)
For the current stable distribution (woody), these problems have been fixed in version 2.3.20-18.woody.4.
For the unstable distribution (sid), these problems have been fixed in version 2.4.1-13.
[16 Aug 2003] DSA-373 autorespond - buffer overflow
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 2.0.2-2woody1.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem will be fixed soon.
[16 Aug 2003] DSA-372 netris - buffer overflow
For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5-4woody1.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 0.52-1.
[13 Aug 2003] DSA-358 linux-kernel-2.4.18 - several vulnerabilities (new revision)
This advisory covers only the i386 and alpha architectures. Other architectures will be covered by separate advisories.
For the stable distribution (woody) on the i386 architecture, these problems have been fixed in kernel-source-2.4.18 version 2.4.18-13, kernel-image-2.4.18-1-i386 version 2.4.18-11, and kernel-image-2.4.18-i386bf version 2.4.18-5woody4.
For the stable distribution (woody) on the alpha architecture, these problems have been fixed in kernel-source-2.4.18 version 2.4.18-13 and kernel-image-2.4.18-1-alpha version 2.4.18-10.
For the unstable distribution (sid) these problems are fixed in kernel-source-2.4.20 version 2.4.20-9.
[11 Aug 2003] DSA-371 perl - cross-site scripting
For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 5.6.1-8.3.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 5.8.0-19.
[09 Aug 2003] DSA-361 kdelibs, kdelibs-crypto - several vulnerabilities (new revision)
For the current stable distribution (woody) these problems have been fixed in version 2.2.2-13.woody.8 of kdelibs and 2.2.2-6woody2 of kdelibs-crypto.
For the unstable distribution (sid) these problems have been fixed in kdelibs version 4:3.1.3-1. The unstable distribution does not contain a separate kdelibs-crypto package.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-370 pam-pgsql - format string
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5.2-3woody1.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem has been fixed in version 0.5.2-7.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-369 zblast - buffer overflow
For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.2pre-5woody2.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 1.2.1-7.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-368 xpcd - buffer overflow
For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 2.08-8woody1.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem will be fixed soon.
[08 Aug 2003] DSA-367 xtokkaetama - buffer overflow
For the current stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in version 1.0b-6woody2.
For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem is fixed in version 1.0b-9.
Of the two highlighted advisories which do not have fixes available, one is an autoresponder for qmail (which is not installed by default) and the other is a collection of tools for working with PhotoCDs (also not installed by default).
So in other words, KISS MY ASS, TROLL.
Jay (=
For those of you who like to throw DMCA around like a big, evil boogeyman, last time I checked, reverse-engineering for the purposes of interoperability is allowed by the DMCA.
Jay (=
But it does make me wonder if perhaps the Babelfish in HHGTTG didn't actually work that well. Thanks to the fish, no one ever bothered to learn anyone else's languages, but how do they know it's an accurate translation? Maybe the fish doesn't do any better than our poor software-based fish, but the bad grammar was fixed by the character's brains/the editor. At least it's amusing to think of all the aliens communicating in babelfish-like translations.
:)
No, if you've read the book, you'd know that the fact the babelfish did in fact translate people's meaning and intent perfectly was why it led to larger wars and more violence than any other cause in history
Jay (=
How is it Microsoft's fault if users run the attachment?
When Microsoft sets the default options so that arbitrary code can be executed, counting that non-technical users will not bother to change default behaviors, yes it is their fault.
Is it Linus Torvalds' fault when there's a sendmail hole? Is that suddenly a "Linux hole?"
No, when it's an exploit affecting an independant application that runs on (and affects) multiple platforms, then it's a "sendmail hole". If it's a exploit in actual kernel code, then it's a "Linux hole".
If it's an exploit that only affects a software component when it's running on a specific platform -- for example, the privilege separation issue in OpenSSH a while back that primarily affected non-OpenBSD platforms -- it's an "OpenSSH for Linux hole".
If it's an exploit in a software component that Microsoft has integrated into its OS and does not affect (or even run on) any other platform, then it's a "Windows hole".
Jay (=
That's what you get for creating disgruntled employees...
Yeah, how dare you fire that guy who always:
(Just because he's disgruntled doesn't mean he has a good reason to be...)
Jay (=
However, in the software section they did have SUSE 8.2 and Redhat 9 for sale.
**--BUT--**, they had ALL the Linux boxes in the section displayed as "UTILITIES"....
That was right next to the display "OPERATING SYSTEMS" that was loaded to the gills with XP boxes. So, they are misleading people by the way they present the product. People that have no knowledge of Linux, and most people fall into this category, would not look at the Linux boxes because they are mislabeled as "utilities" rather than as a operating system, which it *IS*..
That's a problem with that particular store. I can tell you for a fact that in my store, all of our Linux/BSD stuff is sitting right next to Windows. I remember when I started working at Fry's almost three years ago, we had Linux on the utilities aisle with our "server operating systems", including Windows 2000 Server upgrades; they shouldn't be there now. That store probably never rearranged the shelves so they were in their proper place.
Fry's is guilty of something here, I would wager that they did this under the direction of an M$ memo... I pointed out the misleading displays to a manager and got a shrug and a dumb look. A month later nothing had changed.
Sorry, MS doesn't dictate any of our merchandising outside of maybe paying for product placement on an endcap. Our buyers and district managers are in my store every three months and if we were guilty of violating such direction, they didn't say anything to us about it, and beleive me, they would.
If you want to buy a machine without M$ on it from Fry's you have to DEMAND it, they will resist but they will cave in if you hammer the shit out of them. They'll give you ThizLinux, you can Thiz it out the window or Thiz it across the room into the circular file and load a good distro of your choice. But don't let them BS you into XP..
Um, all of our machines other than that ThizLinux box come preloaded. So yes, if you want something else, you're going to have to pay to have it installed.
And if you want a boxed, retail distro, get Suse or Redhat there. I just wish they would put Mandrake on the shelf too, I would buy it.
And I would sell it, but until I was out shopping today I had never seen a box for Mandrake 9.1 (the last I saw was 9.0); I'll inquire into it tomorrow and find out why we don't have it.
Jay (=
I don't know why it seems to be so hard for these stores to do this right. All they need to do is hire one or two people that know what they're doing.
The Fry's I work at has done just that. I know this, because I'm the one they hired with Linux experience.
They could take a regular distribution, Debian, Slack, Redhat, whatever they're good at working on, configure all the hardware properly, setup a user account and a GUI and so forth, with all the normal things that the average user expects at their fingertips.
I'd love it if Fry's did that. I have saved several sales of those ThizLinux boxes (usually when they come looking for a book on Linux) by convincing someone to pick up the $40 Red Hat box and installing that over ThizLinux. And that assumes they don't say "well, I'll just reformat it and put Windows on it then."
If Red Hat, SuSE, Lindows or whoever wants to set up a deal for offering preloads, I invite you to call our corporate office.
Then make a package repository for updates, a disk image for installs, and a short 'getting started' book. Maybe even a live tutorial. None of this would be all that difficult or time consuming to do, given that the code is Free and there's nothing really new here, just applying procedures already well developed.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why the hell should a retail chain be supporting a Linux distro? Isn't that the point of the commerical vendors?
As far as it not being time-consuming or difficult, our IS department is swamped trying to keep our machines upgraded, stable and running. Much of our software is developed in-house, so IS gets to chase down every last "I can't connect to the sales database" and "our POS machine isn't printing quotes"; forget getting them to build an infrastructure for a relatively unknown product that constitutes a fraction of our sales.
As far as a live Linux demo, I'd love it if I could requisition one from computers to do a Linux install on. But the only PC I have to show off Linux on as an old 333MHz machine that even runs Windows dog-slow; not the best choice for demoing Linux, in my opinion. Despite what you might think, most retail stores have a pretty tight policy on "borrowing" saleable product for demos. Every $300 PC I use for a demo is one that we can't sell...
Any demos set up officially by the store would have to be maintained by our IS department; there is another roadblock to Linux adoption. For all the complaints people were making about "clueless users" in the tech support thread, our IS department isn't going to let a non-certified employee touch a store asset, even if I know more about Linux than they do. And the IS tech in my store is a nice guy, but he's not interested in Linux; I've asked. His reponse is something like "I fiddle with machines all day long, I'm not going to do it on my time off!"
Bringing my own PC in is out of the question because our loss prevention department would have kittens. Even if they let me bring in my own PC, I'd probably have to pop the case open every time I took it out of the store to prove that I'm not smuggling stolen hardware out of it. And who pays when some customer breaks my stuff? What about the punk kids who do know about Linux that will gladly demonstrate their l33t skills by trying to trash my setup? No sane employer would cover that kind of liability.
Jay (=
Its a hell of a lot better than the old license. And its not like developers working with Darwin have much of a choice. I mean, who is going to use the APSL on a non Apple derived product?
Heh. The FSF has this to say about the original BSD license; I suspect you would see the same thing happen with APSL2-licensed stuff...
There are many variants of simple non-copyleft free software licenses, including the X10 license, the X11/XFree86 license, the FreeBSD license, and the two BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) licenses. Most of them are equivalent except for details of wording, but the license used for BSD until 1999 had a special problem: the ``obnoxious BSD advertising clause''. It said that every advertisement mentioning the software must include a particular sentence:
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement:
This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
Initially the obnoxious BSD advertising clause was used only in the Berkeley Software Distribution. That did not cause any particular problem, because including one sentence in an ad is not a great practical difficulty.
If other developers who used BSD-like licenses had copied the BSD advertising clause verbatim--including the sentence that refers to the University of California--then they would not have made the problem any bigger.
But, as you might expect, other developers did not copy the clause verbatim. They changed it, replacing ``University of California'' with their own institution or their own names. The result is a plethora of licenses, requiring a plethora of different sentences.
When people put many such programs together in an operating system, the result is a serious problem. Imagine if a software system required 75 different sentences, each one naming a different author or group of authors. To advertise that, you would need a full-page ad.
This might seem like extrapolation ad absurdum, but it is actual fact. NetBSD comes with a long list of different sentences, required by the various licenses for parts of the system. In a 1997 version of NetBSD, I counted 75 of these sentences. I would not be surprised if the list has grown by now. [Remember, this was written in 1998; this has obviously not happened.]
Jay (=
A quote from one of the articles:
Stowell admitted that his company was still providing Linux source code and security patches on its Web site in order to fulfill support contracts with customers, but he disputed Kuhn's claim. "If our IP [intellectual property] is being found in Linux and that's being done without our say, then I don't think that the GPL can force us not to collect license fees from someone who may be using our intellectual property," he said.
Um, yes it can. The GPL explicitly says so.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
Jay (=
(Who is to say that Caldera-now-SCO didn't authorize it? Wasn't Ransom Love and his whole crew basically forced out in favor of the current Chief Sleazebag Officer and his ilk? I wonder what Love has to say about all of this; I smell an interview opportunity...)
The default font (at least every time I installed X) is always *tiny* on my screen. No matter how hard I tried, when I changed settings, it never seemed to work.
This is modded as "Insightful"?
So far as I know, "X" doesn't have a default font. Many window managers and desktop environments do, though; which one are you using?
What is your screen resolution set to? X comes with sets of bitmapped fonts set to 75 DPI and 100 DPI.
What are you doing to change the default font? Some Linux distributions have their own font registry (Debian's defoma comes to mind) independant from a given window manager/desktop enironment. Some programs have their own font handling(!), so changing a default font in a desktop enivronment may not affect how that program handles fonts.
(Sorry if I seem like I'm griping at you; it's more directed at the moderators you were either hitting the crack pipe, or trying to crapflood the discussion...)
Jay
You could recover your data using Knoppix, which would let you boot into a system and read the file system. Unless you encrypted that.
Better yet, you can use your bootloader to pass "init=/bin/bash" to the kernel so the first thing you get is a shell with no password checks at all.
(From Linux Server Hacks by Rob Flickenger)
Jay (=