Are we there yet? certainly not. Linux has shown in the last few years that it is an alternative, although it still cannot compete in every Aspect with commercial Un*x Systems. (Especially Performance)
The greatest drawback for using Linux in your Enterprise is not the Performance issue but lack of Applications. Many Porting efforts are still beta, (Or do you consider Oracle to be stable on Linux?) or simply not done.
It is still difficult to convince the big software firms to actually consider Linux as an alternative, especially in the Enterprise computing field.
To achieve such your goal, imho, would require that you, as a ordinary citizen who is not a nazi, publish information that a nazi would publish, for example. Then, you must be willing to fight, publically for your right to do this, as long as you are not harming anyone else.
sadly it is not a just a matter of free speech over here in germany. Publishing Nazi Propaganda is actually a federal offense. So as long as it is a historical study I am allowed to publisch but not if it used to promote National socialism.
When the government of Germany is blocking sites so that Germans cannot view the oppinions of others, then, in the end, when things go all bad, they can say, with right, "Ich hab es nicht gewuBt"
It was not the German Government who blocked those sites, it was the Government of the State of Nordrhein-Westfahlen which is only one state of 16 in the Federal Republic of Germany. (It would be similar if, maybe, Iowa started to block websites, which is only 1/51th of the whole US).
Also those censoring requests were only limited to two local ISPs which are resident in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Apart from the apparent impracticality of such a request (It would suffice to use another ISP based in one of the other states to still access those sites) from a legal standpoint it is forbidden to publish certain Material related to National Socialism in germany.
This includes but is not restricted to: Adolf Hitlers "Mein Kampf", certain Nazi Symbols like the swastika or the regalia of the SS or the Gestapo (but only when they are not used for educational purposes), Promotion of the Nazi Ideology (the legal term is "Volksverhetzung" which is a federal offesne) and the denial of the Holocaust. (Which is also a federal offense).
It might seem quite strange to American people to actually restrict something like that, especially since "Freedom of speech" is one of their prime directives (which leaves room to discussion) but especially when it comes to anything concerned with National Socialism, german politicians get extremely cautious and PC.
One cause for this policy is that we fear that something like WW2 or the Holocaust might actually happen again if we are not very careful. (Which is to some extend simply paranoia).
But we do have a Nazi Problem in Germany. Those right wing groups are very well organized. (Quite similar to those in the US) Some studies say that there are about 500.000 People in Germany who actually support this Ideology. (But the radicals are still only a minority)
Almost the only way to actually arrest the leaders of this movement is to outlaw the Use of National socialistic Symbols and propaganda. Would we handle it like the US then we could never get hold of them and actually could only watch impassively as the would gather more followers.
Something which no right thinking German could easily allow.
It is not a policy of "looking the other way" quite the contrary. I leave it to you to evaluate if this is the right way (tm), but actually suggesting that germany does this so it can calm its conscience is not only wrong but also very offensive to me.
The Point is that if the german government had had
the Guts to build the Connection between Berlin
and Hamburg then not only would the Netherlands
have bought the technology for the track between
Amsterdam and Groeningen but they would have cofunded a connection between hamburg and Amsterdam too.
This would have made it- as german studies show - very profitable indeed.
Its a relief to finally see someone built such a thing. After more than twenty years of research and more than 20.000.000.000 DM of taxpayers money put into this, our new Government very nearly cancelled the whole thing.
Mind you not because the Construction of a Transrapid connection between Berlin and Hamburg would be too expensive (Actually it would cost not much more than an ICE connection (Germanies High speed train)) but because the Environmentalist Party in Germany (which governs our Land in Association with the Sozial-Democrates) blocked the Project due to environmental concerns.
But If you do not believe in such High tech yourself, How do you think someone else will buy it. (If we had a working Transrapid connection, we would have sold the Technology long ago to several other countries including the Netherlands, Japan and the U.S.)
But politicians only see the cost of a thing and whether or not it brings the voters favour to them, but not how much money they could make out of such an investment.
Regards
Jeff
Slashdot Mirror
Are we there yet? certainly not. Linux has shown in the last few years that it is an alternative, although it still cannot compete in every Aspect with commercial Un*x Systems. (Especially Performance)
The greatest drawback for using Linux in your Enterprise is not the Performance issue but lack of Applications. Many Porting efforts are still beta, (Or do you consider Oracle to be stable on Linux?) or simply not done.
It is still difficult to convince the big software firms to actually consider Linux as an alternative, especially in the Enterprise computing field.
There has still much lobbying to be done.
Jeff
To achieve such your goal, imho, would require that you, as a ordinary citizen who is not a nazi, publish information that a nazi would publish, for example. Then, you must be willing to fight, publically for your right to do this, as long as you are not harming anyone else.
sadly it is not a just a matter of free speech over here in germany. Publishing Nazi Propaganda is actually a federal offense. So as long as it is a historical study I am allowed to publisch but not if it used to promote National socialism.
MfG
Jeff
It was not the German Government who blocked those sites, it was the Government of the State of Nordrhein-Westfahlen which is only one state of 16 in the Federal Republic of Germany. (It would be similar if, maybe, Iowa started to block websites, which is only 1/51th of the whole US).
Also those censoring requests were only limited to two local ISPs which are resident in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Apart from the apparent impracticality of such a request (It would suffice to use another ISP based in one of the other states to still access those sites) from a legal standpoint it is forbidden to publish certain Material related to National Socialism in germany.
This includes but is not restricted to: Adolf Hitlers "Mein Kampf", certain Nazi Symbols like the swastika or the regalia of the SS or the Gestapo (but only when they are not used for educational purposes), Promotion of the Nazi Ideology (the legal term is "Volksverhetzung" which is a federal offesne) and the denial of the Holocaust. (Which is also a federal offense).
It might seem quite strange to American people to actually restrict something like that, especially since "Freedom of speech" is one of their prime directives (which leaves room to discussion) but especially when it comes to anything concerned with National Socialism, german politicians get extremely cautious and PC.
One cause for this policy is that we fear that something like WW2 or the Holocaust might actually happen again if we are not very careful. (Which is to some extend simply paranoia).
But we do have a Nazi Problem in Germany. Those right wing groups are very well organized. (Quite similar to those in the US) Some studies say that there are about 500.000 People in Germany who actually support this Ideology. (But the radicals are still only a minority)
Almost the only way to actually arrest the leaders of this movement is to outlaw the Use of National socialistic Symbols and propaganda. Would we handle it like the US then we could never get hold of them and actually could only watch impassively as the would gather more followers.
Something which no right thinking German could easily allow.
It is not a policy of "looking the other way" quite the contrary. I leave it to you to evaluate if this is the right way (tm), but actually suggesting that germany does this so it can calm its conscience is not only wrong but also very offensive to me.
Jeff
I really never messed with or concerned myself with BSD before, honestly, but shit it's like talking to a Canadian, it's not all
that hard.
May I sig that?? Please.
Jeff
The Point is that if the german government had had the Guts to build the Connection between Berlin and Hamburg then not only would the Netherlands have bought the technology for the track between Amsterdam and Groeningen but they would have cofunded a connection between hamburg and Amsterdam too. This would have made it- as german studies show - very profitable indeed.
Its a relief to finally see someone built such a thing. After more than twenty years of research and more than 20.000.000.000 DM of taxpayers money put into this, our new Government very nearly cancelled the whole thing. Mind you not because the Construction of a Transrapid connection between Berlin and Hamburg would be too expensive (Actually it would cost not much more than an ICE connection (Germanies High speed train)) but because the Environmentalist Party in Germany (which governs our Land in Association with the Sozial-Democrates) blocked the Project due to environmental concerns. But If you do not believe in such High tech yourself, How do you think someone else will buy it. (If we had a working Transrapid connection, we would have sold the Technology long ago to several other countries including the Netherlands, Japan and the U.S.) But politicians only see the cost of a thing and whether or not it brings the voters favour to them, but not how much money they could make out of such an investment. Regards Jeff