Now, what stops a company from taking your code and making massive changes to it and shipping that code for mad moneys? What forces them to give back their changes that might make that code better?
Nothing. Giving stuff away for free means you don't expect anything in return. Not all forms of FLOSS are GPL-like.
What did you and the community gain by contributing to that company's revenue? What if I just took your code and put it on a CD and started selling it with no credit to you and no link or reference to the source code? Wouldn't that rub you the wrong way? Just a little?
Some people just don't care about all that. All they care about is creating a good software for people to use. Period.
Well, what if that company then claimed that your code was an unlicensed version of their code and moved to have it remove?
The same can ocurr if the code had a BSD banner on top of it - a license doesn't keep companies from making up lies.
But who would buy GPL software, when it's generally free? I don't think there's any interest in forking GPL software and reselling in Antigua, and if any big corporation (ie: MS) decides to move there and do something like that, it would hurt their image way too much.
You can point finger wherever you want, but if your product failed to sell it's still 100% your fault. (this may no apply to smaller businesses, indie devs, etc, but heck, it's MS we're talking about).
Arch is bleeding edge, and way more than Fedora. I've never seen broken installers or any important packages broken. Most issues in general, are upstream packages, but nothing as important as the installer.
I've used Arch for years, which uses rolling release as well. I've noticed that rolling release doesn't tend to carry the breakage that dist-upgrade carries, because changes are gradual to the system, one at a time, and don't need to be tested in some arbitrarily defined time, which means they usually get tested more thoroughly too.
It's cheap mp3 players that dominated that market. iPods sold so much because they were the latest fasion, but their sales are nowhere close to cheap mp3s. Zune attempted to be a second iPod, and there's no place for two iPods.
It's not just open source: the truth is, windows doesn't have a bug tracker, so you can't see really old bugs. Windows 7 won't allow users to open/delete/move/do-anything-else on files with some particular characters in their filename. This bug has existed since DOS, so it's actually around two decades old.
For some definitions of "hack". Really, if the site was still up with the security hole, it's not the student's fault: he's not the one who was giving out information.
He didn't run any scanning software, if you'd at least read the summary you'd realize he found an application-level hole while developing a client application.
I use keepassx for infrecuent sites. But it's not so useful for other thing: sites I visit every day from different PCs, logining into the OS, hard drive decryption, etc. You can't carry keepassx around, and that's a problem.
Oracle MySQL is an awful example: the FLOSS version was always poorly maintained since Sun/Oracle want you to but the comercial version. The development process wan't open either. If you want a good comparison of comercial vs open, pick Postgres.
Like I said, only extremely specialized websites used applets. If that's your example of a "popular website that requires java", then I think you've just proved my point.
Trying to use 'todays' internet with Java disabled is not a viable option. A realistic estimate is that over 70% of all common websites require Java to function correctly.
It is unfortunate that so many web developers use Java in places where it just isn't required. While I agree that Java Script does provide needed functionality in some situations, that is not the case in many (most) applications.
If this latest SNAFU gets developers to rethink using Java (or any similar tool), it may actually be a benefit to the web.
I haven't come across any website that uses Java in about three years (and even that one, was a very specialized website).
Because a one-protocol-for-everything is an awful philosophy. It means that you can't change parts you don't like, or replace individual servers - since it's only own monolithic piece. Sure, it's easier for the end user - but that's just a matter of creating better clients with better support for autoconfiguration (for which standards exist).
Meego (maemo6) wasn't so immature actually. Some apps are still missing, but I find it to be as feature-complete as any other mayor player, with great responsiveness, and very intuitive UI. Maemo5 (N900) was cool, but too geek-oriented. Meego is perfect for average-joe.
Hopefully, this won't be the case, since it's the actual developers of the former standards that are sitting together to discuss (and hopefully) simplemente a new one. This means that it'll actually come to replace the former standards, since it's not actually a third party's one.
This is a relatively recent feature. I think they enabled this circa 2006/2007, and it wan't until about a year later that this was stored server-side. While this was stored client side, it meant you'd have to rename contacts on every device you owned/used.
While this is mostly irrelevant for north american users, MSN messenger, later Windows Live Messenger, was a big part of spanish-speaking internet users lives. Oh, the memories of using it to pick up girls;) back then when you could add anyone and they wouldn't freak out because "they don't know you", like people do in facebook. Late night chats with groups of people, those annnoying emoticons, pink fonts, useless "winks"... it's all in the past now. Oh yes, and girls showing their boobs on cam as well. Friendships, fights, contact blocks...
To be fair, Facebook chat killed Messenger. It's convenient, simple to use and it works well in small screens like netbook machines.
I don't know what particular country you're from, but here in Argentina, Google Talk killed MS Messenger long before facebook came along. And yes, the rest of what you say about WLM is common here as well. We've all picked up plenty of girls through it.
So if you're perfectly aware that the are alternatives to Adobe Reader, why do you suggest what, by discarting firefox's builting PDF, I'd be using Adobe software?
Actually, I'm not from the US, and I had assumed cars in the US only had dials in the imperial system (I only discovered I was wrong through another comment in this discussion).
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Now, what stops a company from taking your code and making massive changes to it and shipping that code for mad moneys? What forces them to give back their changes that might make that code better?
Nothing. Giving stuff away for free means you don't expect anything in return. Not all forms of FLOSS are GPL-like.
What did you and the community gain by contributing to that company's revenue? What if I just took your code and put it on a CD and started selling it with no credit to you and no link or reference to the source code? Wouldn't that rub you the wrong way? Just a little?
Some people just don't care about all that. All they care about is creating a good software for people to use. Period.
Well, what if that company then claimed that your code was an unlicensed version of their code and moved to have it remove?
The same can ocurr if the code had a BSD banner on top of it - a license doesn't keep companies from making up lies.
But who would buy GPL software, when it's generally free? I don't think there's any interest in forking GPL software and reselling in Antigua, and if any big corporation (ie: MS) decides to move there and do something like that, it would hurt their image way too much.
You can point finger wherever you want, but if your product failed to sell it's still 100% your fault. (this may no apply to smaller businesses, indie devs, etc, but heck, it's MS we're talking about).
Arch is bleeding edge, and way more than Fedora. I've never seen broken installers or any important packages broken. Most issues in general, are upstream packages, but nothing as important as the installer.
Really? What kind of wild changes have there been in recent linux kernels? In particular, what kind of API breakages have there been?
I've used Arch for years, which uses rolling release as well.
I've noticed that rolling release doesn't tend to carry the breakage that dist-upgrade carries, because changes are gradual to the system, one at a time, and don't need to be tested in some arbitrarily defined time, which means they usually get tested more thoroughly too.
It's cheap mp3 players that dominated that market. iPods sold so much because they were the latest fasion, but their sales are nowhere close to cheap mp3s. Zune attempted to be a second iPod, and there's no place for two iPods.
It's not just open source: the truth is, windows doesn't have a bug tracker, so you can't see really old bugs.
Windows 7 won't allow users to open/delete/move/do-anything-else on files with some particular characters in their filename. This bug has existed since DOS, so it's actually around two decades old.
Reboots aren't as necessary in Linux.
Sure, if you want to run the same kernel for the rest of your life, that's true.
For some definitions of "hack".
Really, if the site was still up with the security hole, it's not the student's fault: he's not the one who was giving out information.
He didn't run any scanning software, if you'd at least read the summary you'd realize he found an application-level hole while developing a client application.
I use keepassx for infrecuent sites. But it's not so useful for other thing: sites I visit every day from different PCs, logining into the OS, hard drive decryption, etc. You can't carry keepassx around, and that's a problem.
Oracle MySQL is an awful example: the FLOSS version was always poorly maintained since Sun/Oracle want you to but the comercial version. The development process wan't open either.
If you want a good comparison of comercial vs open, pick Postgres.
Also, on the GIMP vs PS side: citation needed.
Like I said, only extremely specialized websites used applets.
If that's your example of a "popular website that requires java", then I think you've just proved my point.
Flashblock?
Trying to use 'todays' internet with Java disabled is not a viable option. A realistic estimate is that over 70% of all common websites require Java to function correctly.
It is unfortunate that so many web developers use Java in places where it just isn't required. While I agree that Java Script does provide needed functionality in some situations, that is not the case in many (most) applications.
If this latest SNAFU gets developers to rethink using Java (or any similar tool), it may actually be a benefit to the web.
I haven't come across any website that uses Java in about three years (and even that one, was a very specialized website).
Name ONE popular website that requires Java.
Because a one-protocol-for-everything is an awful philosophy. It means that you can't change parts you don't like, or replace individual servers - since it's only own monolithic piece.
Sure, it's easier for the end user - but that's just a matter of creating better clients with better support for autoconfiguration (for which standards exist).
Meego (maemo6) wasn't so immature actually. Some apps are still missing, but I find it to be as feature-complete as any other mayor player, with great responsiveness, and very intuitive UI.
Maemo5 (N900) was cool, but too geek-oriented. Meego is perfect for average-joe.
Actually, I think it's ok to say that the other three distros are true unix-like GNU/Linux, while android is not unix-like at all.
Hopefully, this won't be the case, since it's the actual developers of the former standards that are sitting together to discuss (and hopefully) simplemente a new one. This means that it'll actually come to replace the former standards, since it's not actually a third party's one.
This is a relatively recent feature. I think they enabled this circa 2006/2007, and it wan't until about a year later that this was stored server-side. While this was stored client side, it meant you'd have to rename contacts on every device you owned/used.
How would you isolate an Avogadro of Hydrogen atoms to compare? I mean, especially since you can't use weights to know how much mass you have.
While this is mostly irrelevant for north american users, MSN messenger, later Windows Live Messenger, was a big part of spanish-speaking internet users lives. Oh, the memories of using it to pick up girls ;) back then when you could add anyone and they wouldn't freak out because "they don't know you", like people do in facebook. Late night chats with groups of people, those annnoying emoticons, pink fonts, useless "winks"... it's all in the past now. Oh yes, and girls showing their boobs on cam as well. Friendships, fights, contact blocks...
To be fair, Facebook chat killed Messenger. It's convenient, simple to use and it works well in small screens like netbook machines.
I don't know what particular country you're from, but here in Argentina, Google Talk killed MS Messenger long before facebook came along. And yes, the rest of what you say about WLM is common here as well. We've all picked up plenty of girls through it.
So if you're perfectly aware that the are alternatives to Adobe Reader, why do you suggest what, by discarting firefox's builting PDF, I'd be using Adobe software?
Actually, I'm not from the US, and I had assumed cars in the US only had dials in the imperial system (I only discovered I was wrong through another comment in this discussion).