... whether AMD's lawyers hibernate during the winter? That might explain why this took so long, I have been waiting for this to happen since that deal was announced.
>This CPA is designed to prevent children from accessing regular porn, not adults from accessing child porn.
>Still a bad law, but let's keep the facts straight.
That's not the point I was trying to make, I know what the CPA is supposed to do. I advanced the hypothesis that the GWB Administration might be using the CPA as an excuse to erode privacy barriers to the point where it freely and legally could conduct much more abusive surveillance. TFA even voices similar concerns:
The case has attracted widespread attention because it has underscored the potential for Internet search engines becoming tools for government surveillance.
Is this a surprise? The Bush admin is waging a war on porn and this is a logical step.
Logical yes.. but one gets the feeling that this has more to do with getting yet another controversial surveillance law enacted by attatching it to a campaign against child porn. The clever aspect of this tactic is that it is hard to be against this sort of a law because it is probably one of the the best ways to hunt down one of the most revolting but also elusive and dangerous species of pervert out there. On the other hand experience teaches us that once it is in place, such a law allowing the US. Govt. agencies to rifle through peoples search queries to their hearts content, is guaranteed to be massively abused by those same agencies for all sorts of other reasons that have nothing to do with catching pedophiles.
do you think it will last? Is Windows picking up momentum or is Unix losing momentum?
Or is it simply that Linux is chewing into UNIX market share? They way that headline sounds one might think this is a case of pure market share gain for Microsoft at the expense of UNIX which is probably not the case here.
Conclusion: remote metadata should not be trusted. This bug would not occur if downloaded files could only belong to their default app.
Even the humble 'file' command recognizes it correctly as a suspicious item, though not as a shellscript:
SomeMac:~/Desktop aUser$ file secunia.mov secunia.mov: ASCII text
Even so this should be relatively easy to plug, at least temporarily, by adding a test in Safari and other apps that examines the content of the file it self and not just the the remote metadata. Of course I would expect something more elegant as a long term solution.
It would be clearer to say that humans were not always apex predators. Many predators are themselves the prey of other creatures, and it is not exactly revolutionary to suggest that this may have been the case for humans and our proto-human ancestors for a long time.
May have been the case??? Make no mistake about it there are still critters on this earth that look at a human and think "mmmmmm... FOOD!" Well knonw examples are polarbears tigers and bullsharks. All of these animals regularly hunt humans for food. When I got my weapons license the instructor in the class on hunting ethics started out by telling us that there are three valid reasons to kill an animal:
1) The animal is sick so you kill it to prevent the disease from spreading. 2) You want to eat the animal. 3) The animal wants to eat you.
That list may seem a bit funny at first glance but basically those rules are as true today as they were during the stoneage.
Good god, these "I deserve to run OS X any way I like" arguments are tiresome. Go do something to make OSS better if you want to tinker. Or hack OS X to run on whatever you want, and then keep it to your damn self and enjoy it! Just for god's sake don't bring up that Apple I motherboards were made in a garage or that Woz futzed around with long distance calls more than 30 years ago - 30 years ago! - as reasons Apple should "chill out" about people using their software in ways they don't like.
I have had this discussion with half a dozen people who are looking forward to being able to use OS.X on their low-end noname PC boxes and laptops with all the stability that it would run on a Mac. Running OS.X on regular PC systems will be possilbe, but it is also going to degenerate into a war between the Apple team working on the locking scheme and whatever crackers there are trying to make OS.X work on their PC boxes. Even if the crackers succeed keeping the OS running most of the time, OS.X on non Apple hardware will never be all that stable, I know that from experience having seen cracked OS.X installations in action (and this on a high end PC laptop, not some cheap-ass noname crapware). Furthermore even if you can run OS.X on your cheapo PC system you will not be able to patch it without worrying about your computer not booting because Apple has shipped a new counter patch to the latest hack with it's newest patch cluster. Basically you would be better off using Linux, yes you will still have to spend a few hours recompiling your kernel and tweaking drivers to get your WIFI to work and you will always have minor issues but at least you won't have to worry about your computer not booting after installing a patch cluster. I would trust my data to Linux long before I would entrust it to a hacked OS.X version running on a Dell laptop.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you probably know that the latest version of Windows--called Vista--is due to hit store shelves later this year (in time for the holidays, Microsoft tells us).
I confess that having been a Linux/OS.X user for years I knew nothing of the exact release date of Vista and had no plans on rectifying this. If that means I should be living under a rock, dibs on that large and jagged lump of granite, sandstone and basalt are sooooo 90s and marble is just plain gauche.
The reason for the lackluster demand is that animated gifs make perfectly good porn. Most porn is just back and forth movements of the same kind over and over. Animated gifs can repeat the same 10 frames over and over for the same effect. What is needed is to transform people into a species that has more varied sexual movements, such as figure 8's that morph into W's, etc. Butterflies have the right idea; they do it in the air in a frenzied dizzy kind of sky dance (although JavaScript may be able to mimic this without lots of frames). As usual, the real problem is the damned humans. Until the marketing department figures this out, they will continue to drive Honda Civics.
After reading that subjectline I was expecting an intellectually stimulating lecture on the intricacies of modern refrigeration technology. Now I am disappointed...
Uhhh... it looks to me like they are purchasing their competition to either insure it isn't developed to the point that it can be a serious threat to their own database product or to quietly change it so much that it's useless and kill the project. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened...
I seem to remember reading that their only serious competitor for the high end database market is DB2/IBM with Microsoft offering a low end alternative. As far as I know they haven't bought out IBM or Microsoft yet and they haven't gone after the OSS alternatives: Postgres, Firebird, Mysql etc. either so I don't think that is has alot to do with suffocating competitors. Mostly Oracle has been buying up all sorts of Middle ware, SSO/Identity Management and other specialist firms with the aim of offering a one-stop-shop platform independent middleware solution for medium to large corporate customers. They are buying expertise and functionality they need but don't have and want to integrate it into their solution packages.
...will it be too late for PalmSource and it's parent company ACCESS to gain a foothold in the mobile phone market?
I sure hope not. Windows Mobile seems to be well on it's way toward taking over a significant portion of this market which needs competition. It will certainly be interesting to see how this market evolves since Linux, and other OS'es have more of a fair chance against Microsoft here than on the Desktop market. Even so I expect Windows Mobile to have a great advantage due to it's high degree of integration with Exchange and now that Exchange has 'Push Mail' RIM also has a reason to worry.
My problem with dark matter is that it's almost as difficult to believe in as God. The only real proof we have is that the universe doesn't appear to move correctly without it..... or is dark matter conveniently transparent
I have to disagree with that, I have no problem believing in the existance of dark matter. In fact I don't have to 'believe' in the existence of dark matter at all, I found some between my toes this morning and it was most certainly not transparent.
What is it with microsoft thinking they can all of a sudden trump their competition by re-inventing products that already exist and are dominating the market.
It worked for Apple and it's MP3 player didn't it? Perhaps Microsoft thinks they can do the same thing, re-hash an idea RIM has already made popular and sell it because they implemented it better and more elegantly than RIM did. RIM has been alone in it's market for a long time and quite frankly they have their had thumb stuck up a certain orifice instead of keeping ahead of the competition which is now cathcing up.
They keep trying to invade markets in which they have little experience or few proven solutions. It seems like every week they have an 'IPod Killer' for every damned piece of technology out there, perhaps they're spreading themselves thin, ergo releasing poor quality products across the board.
I will freely admit to being prone to bashing Microsoft although when I think they deserve it. However one has to give them credit when they do something right, some of their products are simply quite good, that includes the Office suite and Exchange even if their Windows XP operating system sucks ass. They are a significant player on the smarpthone market and to tell you the truth their Windows Mobile OS unlie Windows XP is not half bad. The only complaint I have is poor Microsoft Office integration on OS.X. Microsoft has a very sigificant position on the Smpart/PDA-phone market and offering Exchange native push mail will only strenghten their position. Another strong point of Microsoft is that it offers UI consistency accross multiple phones from numerous different manufacturers that feature a variety of ergonomic designs to suit almost every users taste.
Evidence finally found to support conspiracy theorists' claims of rats plotting world domination.
Plotting? They have already acieved it! the species is called Rattus Politicianus, you it infests senate, parlieamentary and other government buildings world wide. There is also a lesser species called Rattus Lawyeriensis it is usually found chasing after ambulances or monitoring peoples internet connections looking for evidence of illegal music downloads.
Does most of the buiness apps in the office today run on Solaris or BSD? ESPECIALLY BSD? Hell no.
Have you ever heard of Open Office? It's not quite up to Windows Office standards but it is rapidly getting there so it isn't as if Solaris is totally missing office apps. I will admit Solaris doesn't measure up to Windows as a workstation in terms of software diversity but it isn't exactly completely missing any options at all either. You might also want to keep in mind that Mac OS.X is a BSD derivetive, and is certainly not completely missing business apps. That being said I think he was referring less to desktop systems and more to server systems where, believe it or not both Solaris and BSD spank Windows in terms of stability and the effort required to keep them secure and the selection of server software is every bit as good as that for Windows 2003. Yes there are some business apps that are missing on Unix workstations but this is increalingly being rendered less of an issue by companies like Oracle (yes, Oracle makes more than just databases) who concentrate on multi platform, web based, client OS independent, business solutions. It is actually becoming quite possible to build a powerful Microsoft free business IT setup, with apps specially tailored to your needs, that will allow you to deploy Solaris, Linux, BSD, AIX and OS.X clients and servers and that is every bit as good as the MS systems who lock you into the malware ridden MS client OS'es, I have seen it done. In practice future business IT networks will see an increaingly mixed setup of Windows/*NIX servers but especially of workstations. I won't claim that Windows workstations will disappear or even lose their majority market share but perplexed MCSEs will increasingly have to deal with alien workstations running Linux and OS.X.
Double standards boggle my mind. Microsoft would be lynched for half the things Google gets away from. Can someone please tell me why having your all private correspondence (gmail) or your file system (desktop) searchable by someone OTHER THAN ORIGINAL OWNER is a good idea? I know Google not suppose to extract any information, but if they CAN at some point they WILL.
You overestimate the intellect of the average human being, I don't think logic has anything to do with it. Apart from religion and politics nothing reduces the IQ of a human being as quickly and effectively as greed. The reasoning goes something like this: - DUH dude!! Google Desktop is free... as in free beer! What more do I need to know?!?!
The EULA, which presumably can be changed without prior notifications and states that by using GMail/Google Desktop you agree to allow Google to scanning your data for advertising, only gets read after the damage has been done. After that the reaction is usually to quote Homer Simpson: - DOH!
...but you will be pleased to hear that Apple abandoned the 10 inch model for a new 20 inch iPod that has an Intel processor, up to 500GB of storage space and a built in camera!!!
By combining anti-virus scans, anti-spyware scans, and firewall protection into a single package, Microsoft thinks they've created something fresh. So fresh they're charging an annual fee of $49.99 per year.
Sounds like Symantec's 'Norton Internet Security' package except cheaper. I bet this will come pre-installed on Vista with a nag screen asking you to "Activate this essential service for only....". It will of course kill off a lot of security firms that have hitherto made a living off keeping vermin out of Windows but at least it is nice to see that Apple is not the only company willing pull that sort of a stunt. Oh well, at least Apple is not charging its customers for the privilege of being made safe from the design flaws of it's own Operating System, they charge for all sorts of other things but not that.
Genuine question - did Mozilla and Eclipse gain developers because they were "set free", or is that just coincidence? (Remember - just because B followed A, doesn't mean that A caused B)
Genuine answer - Alot of developers have clauses in their employment contracts about what they can and cannot do in their spare time in terms of software develoment. In my own case (I had a lawyer check my contract) I can am free to work on OSS projects if they :
1) Do not undermine the business of my employer. That is the OSS project represents a competing product. 2) The project is not conntrolled by a competing company or corporation.
So I am guessing that it was at least partly a case of Mozilla and Eclipse gaining developers because they were 'set free'.
Some developers have truly draconian clauses in their contracts about the extent to which they can participate in OSS projects. I have even heard of people being forbidden by contract to develop software for anybody but their employer no matter what the circumstance or the nature of the development work (ie. even if it is an OSS project that is solely for their own enjoyment, unrelated to the employers line of business and not for profit). Such clauses would probably not hold up in court, at least not in most EU countries, but corporations include them in employment contracts anyway. The same goes for anti competition clauses, ie. "If you quit and start working for a rival corporation you must remain unemployed for N months before starting your new job". Supreme courts in a nubmer of European countries have have declared such anti competition clauses to be invalid but they keep being included in employment contracts regardless. I suppose employers are counting on their terror value since employees may be reluctant to take the matter to court even if they will win because of the legal cost and the time-demands and hassle of a court case.
Slashdot Mirror
... whether AMD's lawyers hibernate during the winter? That might explain why this took so long, I have been waiting for this to happen since that deal was announced.
>This CPA is designed to prevent children from accessing regular porn, not adults from accessing child porn.
>Still a bad law, but let's keep the facts straight.
That's not the point I was trying to make, I know what the CPA is supposed to do. I advanced the hypothesis that the GWB Administration might be using the CPA as an excuse to erode privacy barriers to the point where it freely and legally could conduct much more abusive surveillance. TFA even voices similar concerns:
The case has attracted widespread attention because it has underscored the potential for Internet search engines becoming tools for government surveillance.
Is this a surprise? The Bush admin is waging a war on porn and this is a logical step.
Logical yes.. but one gets the feeling that this has more to do with getting yet another controversial surveillance law enacted by attatching it to a campaign against child porn. The clever aspect of this tactic is that it is hard to be against this sort of a law because it is probably one of the the best ways to hunt down one of the most revolting but also elusive and dangerous species of pervert out there. On the other hand experience teaches us that once it is in place, such a law allowing the US. Govt. agencies to rifle through peoples search queries to their hearts content, is guaranteed to be massively abused by those same agencies for all sorts of other reasons that have nothing to do with catching pedophiles.
[throws gas on the fire]
This is because Apple is moving from Darwin to Solaris 10 x86 as its GUI code base!
That was funny dude! But not as funny as Dvorak's speculation about Apple dropping OS.X and switching to making Windows boxes so they can compete with Dell, Lenovo & Co.
I should have become a journalist, this guy actually gets paid for starting flamewars.
do you think it will last? Is Windows picking up momentum or is Unix losing momentum?
Or is it simply that Linux is chewing into UNIX market share? They way that headline sounds one might think this is a case of pure market share gain for Microsoft at the expense of UNIX which is probably not the case here.
Even the humble 'file' command recognizes it correctly as a suspicious item, though not as a shellscript:Even so this should be relatively easy to plug, at least temporarily, by adding a test in Safari and other apps that examines the content of the file it self and not just the the remote metadata. Of course I would expect something more elegant as a long term solution.
It would be clearer to say that humans were not always apex predators. Many predators are themselves the prey of other creatures, and it is not exactly revolutionary to suggest that this may have been the case for humans and our proto-human ancestors for a long time.
May have been the case??? Make no mistake about it there are still critters on this earth that look at a human and think "mmmmmm... FOOD!" Well knonw examples are polarbears tigers and bullsharks. All of these animals regularly hunt humans for food. When I got my weapons license the instructor in the class on hunting ethics started out by telling us that there are three valid reasons to kill an animal:
1) The animal is sick so you kill it to prevent the disease from spreading.
2) You want to eat the animal.
3) The animal wants to eat you.
That list may seem a bit funny at first glance but basically those rules are as true today as they were during the stoneage.
Good god, these "I deserve to run OS X any way I like" arguments are tiresome. Go do something to make OSS better if you want to tinker. Or hack OS X to run on whatever you want, and then keep it to your damn self and enjoy it! Just for god's sake don't bring up that Apple I motherboards were made in a garage or that Woz futzed around with long distance calls more than 30 years ago - 30 years ago! - as reasons Apple should "chill out" about people using their software in ways they don't like.
I have had this discussion with half a dozen people who are looking forward to being able to use OS.X on their low-end noname PC boxes and laptops with all the stability that it would run on a Mac. Running OS.X on regular PC systems will be possilbe, but it is also going to degenerate into a war between the Apple team working on the locking scheme and whatever crackers there are trying to make OS.X work on their PC boxes. Even if the crackers succeed keeping the OS running most of the time, OS.X on non Apple hardware will never be all that stable, I know that from experience having seen cracked OS.X installations in action (and this on a high end PC laptop, not some cheap-ass noname crapware). Furthermore even if you can run OS.X on your cheapo PC system you will not be able to patch it without worrying about your computer not booting because Apple has shipped a new counter patch to the latest hack with it's newest patch cluster. Basically you would be better off using Linux, yes you will still have to spend a few hours recompiling your kernel and tweaking drivers to get your WIFI to work and you will always have minor issues but at least you won't have to worry about your computer not booting after installing a patch cluster. I would trust my data to Linux long before I would entrust it to a hacked OS.X version running on a Dell laptop.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you probably know that the latest version of Windows--called Vista--is due to hit store shelves later this year (in time for the holidays, Microsoft tells us).
I confess that having been a Linux/OS.X user for years I knew nothing of the exact release date of Vista and had no plans on rectifying this. If that means I should be living under a rock, dibs on that large and jagged lump of granite, sandstone and basalt are sooooo 90s and marble is just plain gauche.
The reason for the lackluster demand is that animated gifs make perfectly good porn. Most porn is just back and forth movements of the same kind over and over. Animated gifs can repeat the same 10 frames over and over for the same effect. What is needed is to transform people into a species that has more varied sexual movements, such as figure 8's that morph into W's, etc. Butterflies have the right idea; they do it in the air in a frenzied dizzy kind of sky dance (although JavaScript may be able to mimic this without lots of frames). As usual, the real problem is the damned humans. Until the marketing department figures this out, they will continue to drive Honda Civics.
Are you from California?
The Coolness Factor...
After reading that subjectline I was expecting an intellectually stimulating lecture on the intricacies of modern refrigeration technology. Now I am disappointed...
Uhhh... it looks to me like they are purchasing their competition to either insure it isn't developed to the point that it can be a serious threat to their own database product or to quietly change it so much that it's useless and kill the project. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened...
I seem to remember reading that their only serious competitor for the high end database market is DB2/IBM with Microsoft offering a low end alternative. As far as I know they haven't bought out IBM or Microsoft yet and they haven't gone after the OSS alternatives: Postgres, Firebird, Mysql etc. either so I don't think that is has alot to do with suffocating competitors. Mostly Oracle has been buying up all sorts of Middle ware, SSO/Identity Management and other specialist firms with the aim of offering a one-stop-shop platform independent middleware solution for medium to large corporate customers. They are buying expertise and functionality they need but don't have and want to integrate it into their solution packages.
...will it be too late for PalmSource and it's parent company ACCESS to gain a foothold in the mobile phone market?
I sure hope not. Windows Mobile seems to be well on it's way toward taking over a significant portion of this market which needs competition. It will certainly be interesting to see how this market evolves since Linux, and other OS'es have more of a fair chance against Microsoft here than on the Desktop market. Even so I expect Windows Mobile to have a great advantage due to it's high degree of integration with Exchange and now that Exchange has 'Push Mail' RIM also has a reason to worry.
My problem with dark matter is that it's almost as difficult to believe in as God. The only real proof we have is that the universe doesn't appear to move correctly without it..... or is dark matter conveniently transparent
I have to disagree with that, I have no problem believing in the existance of dark matter. In fact I don't have to 'believe' in the existence of dark matter at all, I found some between my toes this morning and it was most certainly not transparent.
that free (beer) beats free (speech).
I have to disagree with you. It has been my experience that free beer when consumed in prodigious quantities tends to encourage free speech.
What is it with microsoft thinking they can all of a sudden trump their competition by re-inventing products that already exist and are dominating the market.
It worked for Apple and it's MP3 player didn't it? Perhaps Microsoft thinks they can do the same thing, re-hash an idea RIM has already made popular and sell it because they implemented it better and more elegantly than RIM did. RIM has been alone in it's market for a long time and quite frankly they have their had thumb stuck up a certain orifice instead of keeping ahead of the competition which is now cathcing up.
They keep trying to invade markets in which they have little experience or few proven solutions. It seems like every week they have an 'IPod Killer' for every damned piece of technology out there, perhaps they're spreading themselves thin, ergo releasing poor quality products across the board.
I will freely admit to being prone to bashing Microsoft although when I think they deserve it. However one has to give them credit when they do something right, some of their products are simply quite good, that includes the Office suite and Exchange even if their Windows XP operating system sucks ass. They are a significant player on the smarpthone market and to tell you the truth their Windows Mobile OS unlie Windows XP is not half bad. The only complaint I have is poor Microsoft Office integration on OS.X. Microsoft has a very sigificant position on the Smpart/PDA-phone market and offering Exchange native push mail will only strenghten their position. Another strong point of Microsoft is that it offers UI consistency accross multiple phones from numerous different manufacturers that feature a variety of ergonomic designs to suit almost every users taste.
Evidence finally found to support conspiracy theorists' claims of rats plotting world domination.
Plotting? They have already acieved it! the species is called Rattus Politicianus, you it infests senate, parlieamentary and other government buildings world wide. There is also a lesser species called Rattus Lawyeriensis it is usually found chasing after ambulances or monitoring peoples internet connections looking for evidence of illegal music downloads.
Does most of the buiness apps in the office today run on Solaris or BSD? ESPECIALLY BSD? Hell no.
Have you ever heard of Open Office? It's not quite up to Windows Office standards but it is rapidly getting there so it isn't as if Solaris is totally missing office apps. I will admit Solaris doesn't measure up to Windows as a workstation in terms of software diversity but it isn't exactly completely missing any options at all either. You might also want to keep in mind that Mac OS.X is a BSD derivetive, and is certainly not completely missing business apps. That being said I think he was referring less to desktop systems and more to server systems where, believe it or not both Solaris and BSD spank Windows in terms of stability and the effort required to keep them secure and the selection of server software is every bit as good as that for Windows 2003. Yes there are some business apps that are missing on Unix workstations but this is increalingly being rendered less of an issue by companies like Oracle (yes, Oracle makes more than just databases) who concentrate on multi platform, web based, client OS independent, business solutions. It is actually becoming quite possible to build a powerful Microsoft free business IT setup, with apps specially tailored to your needs, that will allow you to deploy Solaris, Linux, BSD, AIX and OS.X clients and servers and that is every bit as good as the MS systems who lock you into the malware ridden MS client OS'es, I have seen it done. In practice future business IT networks will see an increaingly mixed setup of Windows/*NIX servers but especially of workstations. I won't claim that Windows workstations will disappear or even lose their majority market share but perplexed MCSEs will increasingly have to deal with alien workstations running Linux and OS.X.
And how many batteries does it run on? Are the batteries replaceable? They don't explode do they?
Nah, no batteries, it comes with a diesel generator.
Double standards boggle my mind. Microsoft would be lynched for half the things Google gets away from. Can someone please tell me why having your all private correspondence (gmail) or your file system (desktop) searchable by someone OTHER THAN ORIGINAL OWNER is a good idea? I know Google not suppose to extract any information, but if they CAN at some point they WILL.
You overestimate the intellect of the average human being, I don't think logic has anything to do with it. Apart from religion and politics nothing reduces the IQ of a human being as quickly and effectively as greed. The reasoning goes something like this: - DUH dude!! Google Desktop is free... as in free beer! What more do I need to know?!?!
The EULA, which presumably can be changed without prior notifications and states that by using GMail/Google Desktop you agree to allow Google to scanning your data for advertising, only gets read after the damage has been done. After that the reaction is usually to quote Homer Simpson: - DOH!
Personally I will stick with spotlight.
...but you will be pleased to hear that Apple abandoned the 10 inch model for a new 20 inch iPod that has an Intel processor, up to 500GB of storage space and a built in camera!!!
By combining anti-virus scans, anti-spyware scans, and firewall protection into a single package, Microsoft thinks they've created something fresh. So fresh they're charging an annual fee of $49.99 per year.
Sounds like Symantec's 'Norton Internet Security' package except cheaper. I bet this will come pre-installed on Vista with a nag screen asking you to "Activate this essential service for only....". It will of course kill off a lot of security firms that have hitherto made a living off keeping vermin out of Windows but at least it is nice to see that Apple is not the only company willing pull that sort of a stunt. Oh well, at least Apple is not charging its customers for the privilege of being made safe from the design flaws of it's own Operating System, they charge for all sorts of other things but not that.
Actually, that's "Apollo landings theory " thank you very much.
For the millionth time, Apollo didn't 'land' on the moon, you evil atheist! It was a human influenced intelligent fall ??
Intelligent .NET Applications
Isn't that a contradiction in terms?
Genuine question - did Mozilla and Eclipse gain developers because they were "set free", or is that just coincidence? (Remember - just because B followed A, doesn't mean that A caused B)
Genuine answer - Alot of developers have clauses in their employment contracts about what they can and cannot do in their spare time in terms of software develoment. In my own case (I had a lawyer check my contract) I can am free to work on OSS projects if they :
1) Do not undermine the business of my employer. That is the OSS project represents a competing product.
2) The project is not conntrolled by a competing company or corporation.
So I am guessing that it was at least partly a case of Mozilla and Eclipse gaining developers because they were 'set free'.
Some developers have truly draconian clauses in their contracts about the extent to which they can participate in OSS projects. I have even heard of people being forbidden by contract to develop software for anybody but their employer no matter what the circumstance or the nature of the development work (ie. even if it is an OSS project that is solely for their own enjoyment, unrelated to the employers line of business and not for profit). Such clauses would probably not hold up in court, at least not in most EU countries, but corporations include them in employment contracts anyway. The same goes for anti competition clauses, ie. "If you quit and start working for a rival corporation you must remain unemployed for N months before starting your new job". Supreme courts in a nubmer of European countries have have declared such anti competition clauses to be invalid but they keep being included in employment contracts regardless. I suppose employers are counting on their terror value since employees may be reluctant to take the matter to court even if they will win because of the legal cost and the time-demands and hassle of a court case.