Because they wont. The people here would rather come to a bulletin board and vent anonymously, and go back to playing Diablo 2, rather than taking some initiative and getting something done.
Notice the ones who actually get off their asses and try to make a difference, are not the ones making grand speculations and talking from their asses on Slashdot.
So dont expect the majority of the voices on Slashdot to do anything beyond complaining. Ever.
Mp3 is trucking along being synonymous with "digitial music" -- meanwhile, ogg vorbis MIGHT get a 1.0 release. What does a "1.0 release" really mean anyway? Your whole argument is based on "Ifs" anyway.
I'll wager that Duke Nukem Forver gets released, with 2 sequels, before ogg vorbis makes any sort of inroads on the digital music industry. *companies* are more likely to say "oh god, not another music format" than say "hey, ogg is 'utterly free'".
Besides, who wants to re-encode their entire collection just for the sake of ogg? Why do all that work for no real substantial gain?
Ogg Vorbis is too little too late along with OS/2, MS Bob, any language by Sun, and Corel's rehash of Wordperfect.
Its not just that, but this is a big story because MS has hyped themselves up as the end-all be-all to the companies that shell out the bucketloads of cash for their support on IIS.
If IBM's Websphere had an exploit would anyone care? No.
If Sun's iPlanet webserver had a big gaping root exploit, would anyone care? No.
If Netscapes crappy web server had issues, would anyone care? No.
The only reason IIS (and apache) make big news is because they're the biggest players, and they have the largest groups of zealots on both sides drawing attention to itself.
Any piece of software is going to have bugs -- If it's job is to serve material over the net, there's going to be some sort of exploit.
So there's another exploit. The vendor will patch it. Big deal. Move on with business.
Well, the fact that IBM doesn't do anything unless their army of lawyers gives the thumbs-up is sort of a given.
I'm rather eager to see the first(?) legitimate case where some legal action is taken by a Big Money company against a GPL violator. That really would be the true test of the GPL.
I mean, what good is a "license" if there are no means for recourse? If there's avenue for legal action, how can you call it a license?
"Do you see any company trusting M$ to hold all of their documents, and data?"
You'd be surprised how many companies out there (big ones, at that) will do anything Microsoft recommends because, by god, Microsoft said so.
If Microsoft says run your website on a crappy web server, companies will pay through the nose to do it.
If Microsoft says use a directory service that's incompatible with the industry standard, companies will pay through the nose to "upgrade" their networks.
If Microsoft says use a firewall that runs on the most insecure OS in history AND does innovate things like (gasp) web caching! - then by god lets dish out more cash for that because Microsoft says so.
I'm sure when.NET shows up officially, Microsoft will use some hottie sales rep to whisper into some Senior VP's ear and say "Why are you storing all your documents and data on your crappy servers? Store it with us and it'll be secure and highly available!".NET is nothing new anyway -- colocation has been around for years and years.
I realize that sounds rediculous, but I've seen it happen in very large companies because upper management just wants a product from a big name, and Microsoft is the Schmooze King of the 2000's.
You have to translate "more widely than is generally realized"
to
"we'll give it to the Fortune 50 companies who happen to be on our Premier Support Service and who will shell out a chunk of change on top of that, not just to our inner sanctum of developers and partners and anyone else who can steal it from us."
If you ever experience any part of their Consulting services or their high-end support services, you'll "generally realize" how much of a load of crap Microsoft's stance is on sharing source code, and innovation in general.
"The executive, Irving Wladawsky- Berger, an I.B.M. vice president, said, "If we thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be doing it, and as you know, we have a lot of lawyers."
Are "a lot of lawyers" really going to get you anywhere when it comes to the GPL?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the GPL doesn't seem to allow for any legal recourse -- I'm surprised that IBM would make a statement like that.
Ok, I'll concede to the fact that RPM has a pretty good man page written for it.
But,
Man pages are the worst injustice to Linux when it comes to someone trying to figure something out. That's assuming whoever wrote the damn thing even bothered writing a man page. I'm surprised that a "Certified Perl Developer" hasn't come to that realization.
They're written by someone who generally hasn't a clue how to put themselves in the shoes of the poor sod who doesn't know the developer's code inside and out.
I'm not saying we should aim documentation at the lowest common denominator, but please, "read the source" is not an acceptable answer for "Do you have some documentation for this piece of software". I don't feel like reading your uncommented spaghetti code just to figure out how the damn thing works.
Don't kid yourself about how crappy the documentation is in general for Linux software. Go check out the stuff on freahmeat. A good chunk of that crap doesn't have a man page written - and if you're lucky, the developer happened to include a README.
I love Linux, but apart from using "man" as a reference, Linux documentation in general sucks.
Only the Pentium 60 and the 66 had the floating point bug -- this was fixed in the 75/90Mhz chips.
Course it was all hype anyway -- I dont think the FDIV bug affected a single home user who shelled out bucks for those new fangled "Pentium"s at the time. At least it didnt affect anything I did...
Probably because nobody wants to take the time to write REAL applications, like streaming video and sound, or a journaling file system, or games that dont suck, or some GOD DAMN DOCUMENTATION besides the freakin source code.
They'd rather write yet-another-napster-clone, and yet-another-irc-bot, or yet-another-irc-clone, or yet-another-mysql-mp3-database so they can waste more time denying the fact that what they really need to do is move out of mom's basement at age 25 and get some sun once in a while.
Slashdot Mirror
Because they wont. The people here would rather come to a bulletin board and vent anonymously, and go back to playing Diablo 2, rather than taking some initiative and getting something done.
Notice the ones who actually get off their asses and try to make a difference, are not the ones making grand speculations and talking from their asses on Slashdot.
So dont expect the majority of the voices on Slashdot to do anything beyond complaining. Ever.
~dlb
Irony is a wonderful thing.
It was probably the gloating.
I'd moderate an attitude like that down too.
~dlb
Mp3 is trucking along being synonymous with "digitial music" -- meanwhile, ogg vorbis MIGHT get a 1.0 release. What does a "1.0 release" really mean anyway? Your whole argument is based on "Ifs" anyway.
I'll wager that Duke Nukem Forver gets released, with 2 sequels, before ogg vorbis makes any sort of inroads on the digital music industry. *companies* are more likely to say "oh god, not another music format" than say "hey, ogg is 'utterly free'".
Besides, who wants to re-encode their entire collection just for the sake of ogg? Why do all that work for no real substantial gain?
Ogg Vorbis is too little too late along with OS/2, MS Bob, any language by Sun, and Corel's rehash of Wordperfect.
~dlb
Ogg Vorbis is just the Betamax of 2001.
It's way too niche, and about 5 years too late, to really catch on.
Hell, look at the Microsoft engine and all of it's $$$ that can't get WMA to catch up to mp3.
Put a fork in Ogg Vorbis, it's through.
~dlb
"We generally won't mess with another country,.."
Oh please.. Where have you been the last decade or so?
There's a fine line between patriotism and sheer ignorance.
~dlb
I'd laugh except it just wasn't that funny.
Good comedy consists of wit, irony and most importantly, delivery. Neither of these does your post have.
Try coming down off that 6-can Mt Dew high before you hit the 'Submit' button.
~dlb
How about "Hot Spare Routing Protocol".
Sounds like its time for you to cut that mullet off and move out of mom's basement.
No, its a GNU/Grue to you.
Nobody cares.
Why is it such a cataclysmic problem to some of you people if your story doesnt get posted or overlooked?
Just move on and stop splitting hairs.
~dlb
Its not just that, but this is a big story because MS has hyped themselves up as the end-all be-all to the companies that shell out the bucketloads of cash for their support on IIS.
If IBM's Websphere had an exploit would anyone care? No.
If Sun's iPlanet webserver had a big gaping root exploit, would anyone care? No.
If Netscapes crappy web server had issues, would anyone care? No.
The only reason IIS (and apache) make big news is because they're the biggest players, and they have the largest groups of zealots on both sides drawing attention to itself.
Any piece of software is going to have bugs -- If it's job is to serve material over the net, there's going to be some sort of exploit.
So there's another exploit. The vendor will patch it. Big deal. Move on with business.
~dlb
Damn - I always forget that one minor detail...
err... "no avenue for legal action"...
doh.
Well, the fact that IBM doesn't do anything unless their army of lawyers gives the thumbs-up is sort of a given.
I'm rather eager to see the first(?) legitimate case where some legal action is taken by a Big Money company against a GPL violator. That really would be the true test of the GPL.
I mean, what good is a "license" if there are no means for recourse? If there's avenue for legal action, how can you call it a license?
~dlb
"Do you see any company trusting M$ to hold all of their documents, and data?"
.NET shows up officially, Microsoft will use some hottie sales rep to whisper into some Senior VP's ear and say "Why are you storing all your documents and data on your crappy servers? Store it with us and it'll be secure and highly available!" .NET is nothing new anyway -- colocation has been around for years and years.
You'd be surprised how many companies out there (big ones, at that) will do anything Microsoft recommends because, by god, Microsoft said so.
If Microsoft says run your website on a crappy web server, companies will pay through the nose to do it.
If Microsoft says use a directory service that's incompatible with the industry standard, companies will pay through the nose to "upgrade" their networks.
If Microsoft says use a firewall that runs on the most insecure OS in history AND does innovate things like (gasp) web caching! - then by god lets dish out more cash for that because Microsoft says so.
I'm sure when
I realize that sounds rediculous, but I've seen it happen in very large companies because upper management just wants a product from a big name, and Microsoft is the Schmooze King of the 2000's.
~dlb
"if Microsoft code was published it would be found to contain stuff they have neither created or licensed."
Like maybe, most of it?
You have to translate "more widely than is generally realized"
to
"we'll give it to the Fortune 50 companies who happen to be on our Premier Support Service and who will shell out a chunk of change on top of that, not just to our inner sanctum of developers and partners and anyone else who can steal it from us."
If you ever experience any part of their Consulting services or their high-end support services, you'll "generally realize" how much of a load of crap Microsoft's stance is on sharing source code, and innovation in general.
~dlb
"The executive, Irving Wladawsky- Berger, an I.B.M. vice president, said, "If we thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be doing it, and as you know, we have a lot of lawyers."
Are "a lot of lawyers" really going to get you anywhere when it comes to the GPL?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the GPL doesn't seem to allow for any legal recourse -- I'm surprised that IBM would make a statement like that.
~dlb
I wish there was a "-1 Naive", or "-1 Fantasy", moderation -- this poster fits the bill.
~dlb
Actually, after reading this, the word "acne" springs to my mind.
~dlb
Ok, I'll concede to the fact that RPM has a pretty good man page written for it.
But,
Man pages are the worst injustice to Linux when it comes to someone trying to figure something out. That's assuming whoever wrote the damn thing even bothered writing a man page. I'm surprised that a "Certified Perl Developer" hasn't come to that realization.
They're written by someone who generally hasn't a clue how to put themselves in the shoes of the poor sod who doesn't know the developer's code inside and out.
I'm not saying we should aim documentation at the lowest common denominator, but please, "read the source" is not an acceptable answer for "Do you have some documentation for this piece of software". I don't feel like reading your uncommented spaghetti code just to figure out how the damn thing works.
Don't kid yourself about how crappy the documentation is in general for Linux software. Go check out the stuff on freahmeat. A good chunk of that crap doesn't have a man page written - and if you're lucky, the developer happened to include a README.
I love Linux, but apart from using "man" as a reference, Linux documentation in general sucks.
~dlb
"RTFM and you won't have these problems"
The problem is, with a vast majority of linux software, there is no FM to read.
Read the source? Give me a break.
~dlb
Only the Pentium 60 and the 66 had the floating point bug -- this was fixed in the 75/90Mhz chips.
Course it was all hype anyway -- I dont think the FDIV bug affected a single home user who shelled out bucks for those new fangled "Pentium"s at the time. At least it didnt affect anything I did...
~dlb
Probably because nobody wants to take the time to write REAL applications, like streaming video and sound, or a journaling file system, or games that dont suck, or some GOD DAMN DOCUMENTATION besides the freakin source code.
They'd rather write yet-another-napster-clone, and yet-another-irc-bot, or yet-another-irc-clone, or yet-another-mysql-mp3-database so they can waste more time denying the fact that what they really need to do is move out of mom's basement at age 25 and get some sun once in a while.
IRC-speak is sooo 90's.