the only way to cure the disease is to eliminate copyright
spot: Would I be correct in guessing that you are a fan of the GNU GPL? Thought so. Now, do you realize that if copyright were eliminated, copyleft would disappear as well? That's right. All source code would have no restrictions on it, including making binary-only, proprietary distributions based on GNU code.
Imagine MS Visual C++ being powered with a gcc based compiler? Or Solaris or BeOS stealing linux hardware driver code? That's what you'd get if copyright went away.
you have a responsibility to play fair and abide by legislation.
Who says playing fair and abiding by legislation are necessarily compatible goals? Fairness is somewhat of a subjective term; many would say that forcing Microsoft to compete with one hand tied behind its back (attempting to separate the Office and OS divisions) is unfair. After all; it's their source code. Why can't they release early and often within the company, and use their own OS code to improve Office?
That addresses the last lawsuit; now for this one. I, personally, would say that nobody has a responsibility to abide by unconstitutional or unjust legislation. In fact, in many cases, one may even have the moral responsibility to attack improper legislation. Considering the fact that post-Roosevelt federal law doesn't take into account any Constitutional restrictions (save certain bill of rights amendments), the laws that MS is accused of breaking might just be worth fighting against, regardless of how obnoxious the popularity of Windows is.
Such vehemence against GNU... I bet Linus Torvalds is the only guy who could get away with saying such things about GNU, without being ripped on by 250 posts or so.
He'd probably also get a -2 or so moderation if he posted that here...
In the article, Linus mentioned that, after the Alpha port, it became clear that he did not want to manage more than one source tree. So, all the architectures have been merged into one tree.
If someone with FTP space and bandwidth wants to take the kernel releases, and make up different.bz2's for each architecture, the world would be grateful. However, I think Linus should just continue to do what is easiest in that regard, which is to keep all the files together, to keep them most manageable.
If slashdot stopped announcing kernel updates, I (and many others, I'm sure) would have to start reading yet another web page regularly to find out 1) when kernels are released and 2) what problems the new releases have.
One can always turn off the "Linux" topic in the/. user preferences.
The reason IP is important to a free market is to encourage innovation. While it's true that innovation would happen without patents, a bottom-line focused suit is more likely to pour millions into research and development if he feels the company will get a substantial ROI from the research. The returns grow if a temporary monopoly is granted to those who developed the new idea.
The government does not have the right to censor speech or ideas. And neither does anyone else Of course people have the right to censor. If I own a computer, I can do what I will with it, including censoring what any children I may have see. The first amendment doesn't prohibit individuals from doing anything, only the government.
After all, one can download the source quite easily, so the only obstacle to copying the site would be acquiring a good server, and a good internet connection.
Of course, andy copycat site could start with nothing less than a stable server and high bandwidth. If the site started out small, I'm sure somebody'd mention it on slashdot, and the slashdot effect would kill it. Then, everyone would realize that the server hadn't the capability to be a large news site, and nobody'd bother to go back.
Perhaps this is a self-defense mechanism, keeping slashdot from being copied.:-)
President Bush should get together with Hastert and Lott to repeal encryption export restrictions, end government purchases of Windows NT, and fix the Patent office.
if Gore got his hands on linux, it would become illegal. He'd say that linux discriminates against minorities, since minorities are less likely (according to various polls) to have computers and internet access.
Well, whether the G4 or the K7 will be faster should, naturally, depend on what you're doing. A 200 MHz bus on the K7 to the system RAM would certainly speed up certain apps, but the optimized altivec instructions would make other things faster for the G4. (or am I stupid, by not knowing the bus speeds for the G4?)
Other important considerations will be AMD's track record for poor yields (resulting in lower clock speeds), and the tendency for Motorola PowerPC chips to be available to the average person only in a Mac (limited choice and competition for motherboards). Although, at this time, we don't know how many motherboards will be out for AMD's new Slot A line, so motherboard selection may not be an advantage for the K7.
All and all, it's too soon to tell. AMD boosters (like me) are hoping for Sharptooth to tear up the competiton, but I've also been having an occasional fleeting thought about running linux on one of those G4s.
While normally I find myself shaking my head at Stallman's comments, I found this article to be tame, clear, and a good read. Except for the jab at ESR at the end, I found this to be a calm, refreshing side of the creator of the copyleft. Even better, in my opinion, than the writings in www.gnu.org/philosophy.
If he could be this rational in arguments over the label GNU/Linux, my respect for him would be much greater than it is now.
An aside comment, though. Now that I'm using the cookies and have my preferences set, I'm seeing the moderated comments for the first time. Something that disturbs me is that nearly every pro-Apple comment on this thread has been knocked to -1. Rob: it's not worth having moderators if there's such a strong bias in it.
Sure, there are those who say Java is what C++ should have been...
but then why not free Java from the portability hype, and the internet hype, and the compatibility hype, and just make a gcc frontend for it, just like C++.
Why not? because then java would be just another language, and not a bunch of hyped "technology."
What is wrong with a good GUI? Just because someone likes a desktop environment that lifts some ideas from Microsoft, it doesn't make them any less intelligent, knowledgable, or "real".
Now, the charge is often levelled that a CLI is more flexible, and thus is more powerful in the hands of a knowledgable user. I agree with that, completely. However I feel that a knowledgable user's time is best spent on useful things, not routine ones. A GUI can be quite useful and time-saving for mundane, ordinary tasks.
Clicking on a modem in my task bar and hitting "connect" is simple, as anything I do 10 times a day *should* be. (my isp is quite unreliable at times). Same with opening netscape --geometry blah --no-about-splash, and reading/replying to email. Routine, easy tasks, that are convenient to do with mouse clicks.
A GUI can also make powerful, complicated features of CLI software easier to access, too. rpm managers, and other frontends are nice things to have in a gui.
Perhaps much of the GUI frustration comes from ex-Windows users, or those who have to try to administrate NT for a living. To these people I say that KDE is not attempting to replace the command line.
KDE is not a budding Win32, trying to shield you from a command line. Nothing about KDE prevents you from popping a konsole (or kvt if you prefer) and doing whatever it is that doesn't work in gui form. KDE is just a way of making GUI-capable things even easier.
Why shouldn't Linux get a crack at the same competition and refinement that Windows had some years ago?
I remember some ages-past article about "The Dueling Suites" in PC Computing which actually compared Office with SmartSuite and Corel (who's that?) Of course, MS won the top reviews throughout the article with strong wording, "hands down" or something similar.
Microsoft sycophants they may have been, but I personally feel that Word was a stronger product at the time, with a cleaner interface, more customizable, and easier to use. I know there's probably going to be someone posting a reply about "I loved SmartSuite, still use it even though corporate's gone office" or something, but I still feel that Office improved faster than its competitiors. Just like how MS whipped its programmers into making IE faster than Netscape.
Word, having overtaken Wordperfect and Ami Pro, went on to become the virus it is today.
Microsoft would not have done half the refinement and improvement they put into Word were there no competition from Lotus and Wordperfect - Borland - Corel.
For now, it's usability and basic features that drive the development of KOffice, AbiWord, lyx, etc. but I think that ego and a quest for popularity would be good for driving future enhancements.
Besides, multiple word processors leaves open the possiblity that they will fill different niches, instead of emulating Word's one-bloat-fits-all approach.
If Stallman was so critical to the project from a code perspective, that his absence killed it, why didn't he find step into a managerial position, and open up development to others?
ah, the bazaar.. it's a term overused these days, but it applies, I imagine. If Stallman requested patches and improvements, to get the GNU kernel off the ground, zealots from around the world would heed the cry.
That many eyeballs are a substantial resource; the HURD developers should take advantage of it, by publicizing HURD more, and actively recruiting developers.
Be has swayed a lot of people, and BeOS is not even free. Stallman should be able to attract a horde for HURD.:-)
distinguish RMS from his supporters
on
Wired on RMS
·
· Score: 1
While RMS may be intolerant of practices divergent from his beliefs (which is perfectly fine), he doesn't go around trying to silence those who disagree with him.
On this website, however, some supporters of RMS and his ideology do attempt to silence the opposition.. through flames, personal attacks, etc.
Now, I'm trying hard not to generalize; there is the occasional pro-MS post that derides all users of Linux.
I'm fairly certain that Stallman recognizes the right of a software author to release *wholly original* code in a form other than GPL-covered source. It's just that he wishes that people would not, especially if they use GNU and other GPL'd tools to develop it.
This frustration (I imagine) is what leads to the whole "Lesser GPL" campaign.
What's the point of this post? To show the pro-FSF contingent on slashdot that not everyone who disagrees with Free softare ideology is irrational. If the context of the argument is kept on stronger footing than CAPS-LOCKED oneliners, then maybe the flames will decrease somewhat.
I'm probably just wasting my time.. AC one-liners won't cease, and all the intolerance won't cease..
Slashdot Mirror
the only way to cure the disease is to eliminate copyright
spot: Would I be correct in guessing that you are a fan of the GNU GPL? Thought so. Now, do you realize that if copyright were eliminated, copyleft would disappear as well? That's right. All source code would have no restrictions on it, including making binary-only, proprietary distributions based on GNU code.
Imagine MS Visual C++ being powered with a gcc based compiler? Or Solaris or BeOS stealing linux hardware driver code? That's what you'd get if copyright went away.
Be careful what you wish for...
you have a responsibility to play fair and abide by legislation.
Vive property rights!
Such vehemence against GNU... I bet Linus Torvalds is the only guy who could get away with saying such things about GNU, without being ripped on by 250 posts or so.
He'd probably also get a -2 or so moderation if he posted that here...
In the article, Linus mentioned that, after the Alpha port, it became clear that he did not want to manage more than one source tree. So, all the architectures have been merged into one tree.
.bz2's for each architecture, the world would be grateful. However, I think Linus should just continue to do what is easiest in that regard, which is to keep all the files together, to keep them most manageable.
If someone with FTP space and bandwidth wants to take the kernel releases, and make up different
If slashdot stopped announcing kernel updates, I (and many others, I'm sure) would have to start reading yet another web page regularly to find out 1) when kernels are released and 2) what problems the new releases have.
/. user preferences.
One can always turn off the "Linux" topic in the
The reason IP is important to a free market is to encourage innovation. While it's true that innovation would happen without patents, a bottom-line focused suit is more likely to pour millions into research and development if he feels the company will get a substantial ROI from the research. The returns grow if a temporary monopoly is granted to those who developed the new idea.
The government does not have the right to censor speech or ideas. And neither does anyone else Of course people have the right to censor. If I own a computer, I can do what I will with it, including censoring what any children I may have see. The first amendment doesn't prohibit individuals from doing anything, only the government.
After all, one can download the source quite easily, so the only obstacle to copying the site would be acquiring a good server, and a good internet connection.
:-)
Of course, andy copycat site could start with nothing less than a stable server and high bandwidth. If the site started out small, I'm sure somebody'd mention it on slashdot, and the slashdot effect would kill it. Then, everyone would realize that the server hadn't the capability to be a large news site, and nobody'd bother to go back.
Perhaps this is a self-defense mechanism, keeping slashdot from being copied.
President Bush should get together with Hastert and Lott to repeal encryption export restrictions, end government purchases of Windows NT, and fix the Patent office.
if Gore got his hands on linux, it would become illegal. He'd say that linux discriminates against minorities, since minorities are less likely (according to various polls) to have computers and internet access.
Well, I would assume that GNOME has some sort of list of credits, names and emails of significant contributors. A list of those can be found exactly.
Well, whether the G4 or the K7 will be faster should, naturally, depend on what you're doing. A 200 MHz bus on the K7 to the system RAM would certainly speed up certain apps, but the optimized altivec instructions would make other things faster for the G4. (or am I stupid, by not knowing the bus speeds for the G4?)
Other important considerations will be AMD's track record for poor yields (resulting in lower clock speeds), and the tendency for Motorola PowerPC chips to be available to the average person only in a Mac (limited choice and competition for motherboards). Although, at this time, we don't know how many motherboards will be out for AMD's new Slot A line, so motherboard selection may not be an advantage for the K7.
All and all, it's too soon to tell. AMD boosters (like me) are hoping for Sharptooth to tear up the competiton, but I've also been having an occasional fleeting thought about running linux on one of those G4s.
While normally I find myself shaking my head at Stallman's comments, I found this article to be tame, clear, and a good read. Except for the jab at ESR at the end, I found this to be a calm, refreshing side of the creator of the copyleft. Even better, in my opinion, than the writings in www.gnu.org/philosophy.
If he could be this rational in arguments over the label GNU/Linux, my respect for him would be much greater than it is now.
An aside comment, though. Now that I'm using the cookies and have my preferences set, I'm seeing the moderated comments for the first time. Something that disturbs me is that nearly every pro-Apple comment on this thread has been knocked to -1. Rob: it's not worth having moderators if there's such a strong bias in it.
But it's proprietary software!
:-)
Until Nintendo releases the source to the game engine, Zelda 64 and games like it should be boycotted by all who love free software.
SuSE
Caldera
Stampede
3 major linux distributions that ship KDE.
Didn't catch on? Perhaps that's just wishful thinking.
1) KDE doesn't have nifty corporate sponsorship to have it waste time at silly conventions
2) KDE's core development is centered in Europe, so traveling to US conventions would be unlikely, anyway.
3) "this is 1.0 after all"... The thing shouldn't have been moved to 1.0 if it weren't ready for the world to use and abuse it.
Sure, there are those who say Java is what C++ should have been...
but then why not free Java from the portability hype, and the internet hype, and the compatibility hype, and just make a gcc frontend for it, just like C++.
Why not? because then java would be just another language, and not a bunch of hyped "technology."
leave MEEPT alone.. he's fun.
What is wrong with a good GUI? Just because someone likes a desktop environment that lifts some ideas from Microsoft, it doesn't make them any less intelligent, knowledgable, or "real".
Now, the charge is often levelled that a CLI is more flexible, and thus is more powerful in the hands of a knowledgable user. I agree with that, completely. However I feel that a knowledgable user's time is best spent on useful things, not routine ones. A GUI can be quite useful and time-saving for mundane, ordinary tasks.
Clicking on a modem in my task bar and hitting "connect" is simple, as anything I do 10 times a day *should* be. (my isp is quite unreliable at times). Same with opening netscape --geometry blah --no-about-splash, and reading/replying to email. Routine, easy tasks, that are convenient to do with mouse clicks.
A GUI can also make powerful, complicated features of CLI software easier to access, too. rpm managers, and other frontends are nice things to have in a gui.
Perhaps much of the GUI frustration comes from ex-Windows users, or those who have to try to administrate NT for a living. To these people I say that KDE is not attempting to replace the command line.
KDE is not a budding Win32, trying to shield you from a command line. Nothing about KDE prevents you from popping a konsole (or kvt if you prefer) and doing whatever it is that doesn't work in gui form. KDE is just a way of making GUI-capable things even easier.
Why shouldn't Linux get a crack at the same competition and refinement that Windows had some years ago?
I remember some ages-past article about "The Dueling Suites" in PC Computing which actually compared Office with SmartSuite and Corel (who's that?) Of course, MS won the top reviews throughout the article with strong wording, "hands down" or something similar.
Microsoft sycophants they may have been, but I personally feel that Word was a stronger product at the time, with a cleaner interface, more customizable, and easier to use. I know there's probably going to be someone posting a reply about "I loved SmartSuite, still use it even though corporate's gone office" or something, but I still feel that Office improved faster than its competitiors. Just like how MS whipped its programmers into making IE faster than Netscape.
Word, having overtaken Wordperfect and Ami Pro, went on to become the virus it is today.
Microsoft would not have done half the refinement and improvement they put into Word were there no competition from Lotus and Wordperfect - Borland - Corel.
For now, it's usability and basic features that drive the development of KOffice, AbiWord, lyx, etc. but I think that ego and a quest for popularity would be good for driving future enhancements.
Besides, multiple word processors leaves open the possiblity that they will fill different niches, instead of emulating Word's one-bloat-fits-all approach.
Of course, those using unicode character sets will wish to call
llpanmGDICreateFlyingTrashPaperAnimationU()
or just use the macro
llpanmGDICreateFlyingTrashPaperAnimation()
which will be defined appropriately.
Great title for a book..
:-)
If Stallman was so critical to the project from a code perspective, that his absence killed it, why didn't he find step into a managerial position, and open up development to others?
ah, the bazaar.. it's a term overused these days, but it applies, I imagine. If Stallman requested patches and improvements, to get the GNU kernel off the ground, zealots from around the world would heed the cry.
That many eyeballs are a substantial resource; the HURD developers should take advantage of it, by publicizing HURD more, and actively recruiting developers.
Be has swayed a lot of people, and BeOS is not even free. Stallman should be able to attract a horde for HURD.
While RMS may be intolerant of practices divergent from his beliefs (which is perfectly fine), he doesn't go around trying to silence those who disagree with him.
On this website, however, some supporters of RMS and his ideology do attempt to silence the opposition.. through flames, personal attacks, etc.
Now, I'm trying hard not to generalize; there is the occasional pro-MS post that derides all users of Linux.
I'm fairly certain that Stallman recognizes the right of a software author to release *wholly original* code in a form other than GPL-covered source. It's just that he wishes that people would not, especially if they use GNU and other GPL'd tools to develop it.
This frustration (I imagine) is what leads to the whole "Lesser GPL" campaign.
What's the point of this post? To show the pro-FSF contingent on slashdot that not everyone who disagrees with Free softare ideology is irrational. If the context of the argument is kept on stronger footing than CAPS-LOCKED oneliners, then maybe the flames will decrease somewhat.
I'm probably just wasting my time.. AC one-liners won't cease, and all the intolerance won't cease..
have a nice day anyway.
Free software methods are both a social reform and a better development method. Really.
For some people, it may be both. But, there are loads of people who want the better development without the ideology of the likes of RMS.
One doesn't have to believe that "Information wants to be free" to use, develop, or sell free software.
Now, granted, KDE 1.0 was a bit unstable.. I almost quit using it as a result.
Fortunately, my frustration came to a head just as 1.1 was released.. now KDE 1.1 seems to be fairly rock-solid.
your experience may differ.. but some "zealots" may be speaking the truth.
Here in California, caller ID can be set to be blocked by default... (blocked to all but police and 911 and such anyway)
and NIC numbers can be changed (at least with some cards)