Yes this is a nice idea and could halt many broad patents. IANAL but I think you need to deposit the blueprints of any device or object if you want to patent it, the same should happen with software.
>After all, couldnt somone else come up with a
>similar function, but using a different method?
This is the central problem with patents as they are granted. In practice once a patent is granted it's very difficult to come up with a different program that has similar function. Witness the "one clik" patent. So in practice you end up patenting "EVERY" implementation and hence you patent the IDEA ! which is I believe impossible !!
Governements policiy in matters which don't appeal direcly to citizens because they feel that they are not informed or think that these things too complicated for them are mainly done by lobbies and big corporation. This is a really sad state of affairs, and a lack of democracy.
Alas the US not only give the tone in technology but in legal matters too. For instance EU is seeking to implement a software patent law and a DMCA like law too. Lobbies are pushing this very hard in Bruxelle so this not only a US problem, Japan is doing the same thing, and soon because of WTO everybody else will follow.
This is how harmfull laws are passed without the will of citizens who are eitheir too ignorant to act or too weak to have their voices heard. No wonder you have more and more activism in Worlds Summit like it happened in Genova (Italy).
Microsoft often likes to make outrageous and very strong comments like this. In fact I suspect this to be a very well thought out strategy of their PR departement, to hide people forget how much "outrageous, and heavy handed" their own practice are. "The more you react violently, the more people will think you must be inocent, and for a good reason".
I have read in a financial site, Yahoo I believe, that Borland revenues where up 20% for this quarter, and that was among other things to be attribute to Kylix sales which where better than expected.
Don't forget the main unspoken point of KDE and Gnome and many of their applications ! their aim is to bring Windows users to Linux, not to convince geeks who already use Linux and know about Mutt or Pine or whatever, and can also find their way through the multitude of other Linux applications. So the applications need to feel loke Windows applications to attract Windows users duh !
Taliban are heavily supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two of the bigest US allies, if the US wanted really to catch him, they would have done this a long time ago.
For instance Linus own the Linux trademark, and only Linus can define what Linux, is by accepting or rejecting patchs. This is the only way to avoid forks, oherwise you may have hundreds of Linux, and you couldn't tell which one is the official one. Well in fact, in practice, you may have some variation on the Linux Thema with some patchs included or not, but no one can hijack say (Microsoft for instance) and release their own substalially different version of Linux while calling it Linux. The GPL allow them to get the soure code, but they can no longer call Linux if Linus says this is not Linux. They need to find another name.
Huh !! Check your facts dude ! the US alone is responsible for nearly 50% of world CO2 pollution. I think that an american must consume something as 100 times (not exactly sure, but ig gives an order of magnitude) as much energy than an indian ! amazing !? no
>Someone else mentioned that the dep. of defence
>is moving over to linux (see, sometimes it's
>GOOD when people don't read the whole article)
I think it's very important for Linux to have stories like this. "Major corportaion throwing out M$ for Linux in the Desktop". Managers like to quote those stories to support their ideas. Remember a manager is always anxious, is he doing the right decision !? if a big corporation with probably a lot of smart people has done it, then it must a goog thing to do !
>Note that Slashdot can make as much noise as
>they want and it's not going to affect Microsoft
>at all. It's really the big corporate customers
>and the OEMs that have the pull.
I think you are completly wrong here, if you think this, things will never change ! Slashdot as the primary Open Source forum IS having a major effet on technical journalists opinions for instance, and many of them often read Slashdot to jauge how technically and freedom oriented people feel about certain issues.
Many French journals for instance (like 01 informatique and sometimes libération) now routinly report some Slashdot opinions, albeight without mentioning the sources. I also noticed that French Yahoo now quotes Slashdot from time to time (Killustrator issue for example).
So yes Slashdot is minority, but a Vocal one, and history thought us that it's Vocal Minorities who change history.
And things are changing, of course slowly, and people are starting to get the message, you won't displace M$ overnight.
>Microsoft doesn't listen much to the public anti-
>Microsoft whiners Microsoft does listen to the
>Beta-testers
>One of the other interesting things is that a
>lot of you anti-Microsoft whiners tend to
>misrepresent stories
Well maybe you are suffering from the same syndrom too, think about it:)
Maybe the Open Source crowd is not the only group who has reacted ! but there have been a lot of stories in the press and I am pretty sure that M$ PR departement who are not idiot, have pressetend that this thing could become a communication debacle !
Open source/Free software is most certainly what can be qualified as a "Vocal Minority"; alas it has also, certainly one of it's other attribute "fundamentalism". But, maybe the two are closely related. You need to be really focused on your believes and dismess other believes if you want to make a difference, or if you want to change things.
History has told us, quite often, that it' "Vocal minorities" who change history.
>Solution: Don't buy the thing for fucks sake.
>Has anyone ever had a gun stuck down their
>throat by an MS employee and been forced to
>purchase MS software? No so what the hell is the
>big deal?
Well, in corporation alas, it doesn't works like this. Most of time, the easiest and less risky solution is to go with an M$ product. To swim against the tide, you need to be highly motivated and you need really a lot of energy, to convince the upper management. Most of the time people just give up, as they don't want to add the this burden for projects which migh be already difficult.
If this is really true, I must say it's rather funny. Yes I knew it was mainly a prison for aristocrats, and not for "les sans culottes" a kind of 5 stars prison !
Anyway ! only the myth, the legend and symbol, count:) well, it's kinda, sorta marketing for the revolution !!
The best place I have discovered so far, to download MP3; is audiogalaxy.com. It's web based, You can resume stoped download too. Very easy to use. You can can easily discover new artists too.
>And, if no one had noticed, we've developed a few
> distributed computing models (freenet comes to
> mind) that can share the content-serving side of
> a serverload across multiple systems (cached
> nearby for your convenience!) that will eschew
> the old days of us slashdotting, well, Slashdot.
And if no one had noticed, we've developed a few distributed computing models (Usenet comes to mind) !!!
This is what Usenet has been made for in the first place, it's distributed, it's p2p before this word was fashionable or the last buzzword, and with groups.google.com it's archivable; searchable, it's the best Web knowledge base I know of, and it will never die !
> It's the momentum that's important not the
> technical excellance.
>I mean, why Linux? There are so many better
>alternatives to Apple and Microsoft. FreeBSD for
>the cheap guys. BeOS for the less cheap guys.
>Linux just doesn't make sense.
I feel You are contradicting yourself here. Even if Linux is less technically capable than FreeBSD, or BeOS which I doubt; it has clearly gathered much more mementum, and it can only gets bigger and better. So given the energy spent in Linux development, and the cumulative effect of development in free software, it's only a matter of time before it gets leaps and bounds better and in "every field" than these two OS.
You said it yourself, it's only momentum that count !!
Slashdot Mirror
Yes this is a nice idea and could halt many broad patents. IANAL but I think you need to deposit the blueprints of any device or object if you want to patent it, the same should happen with software.
>After all, couldnt somone else come up with a
>similar function, but using a different method?
This is the central problem with patents as they are granted. In practice once a patent is granted it's very difficult to come up with a different program that has similar function. Witness the "one clik" patent. So in practice you end up patenting "EVERY" implementation and hence you patent the IDEA ! which is I believe impossible !!
Governements policiy in matters which don't appeal direcly to citizens because they feel that they are not informed or think that these things too complicated for them are mainly done by lobbies and big corporation. This is a really sad state of affairs, and a lack of democracy.
Alas the US not only give the tone in technology but in legal matters too. For instance EU is seeking to implement a software patent law and a DMCA like law too. Lobbies are pushing this very hard in Bruxelle so this not only a US problem, Japan is doing the same thing, and soon because of WTO everybody else will follow.
This is how harmfull laws are passed without the will of citizens who are eitheir too ignorant to act or too weak to have their voices heard. No wonder you have more and more activism in Worlds Summit like it happened in Genova (Italy).
You can do this with VNC !
That would surprise me, Redhat have said that they are not interested in the Desktop anymore.
Microsoft often likes to make outrageous and very strong comments like this. In fact I suspect this to be a very well thought out strategy of their PR departement, to hide people forget how much "outrageous, and heavy handed" their own practice are. "The more you react violently, the more people will think you must be inocent, and for a good reason".
Do you have any data to support what you say ?
I have read in a financial site, Yahoo I believe, that Borland revenues where up 20% for this quarter, and that was among other things to be attribute to Kylix sales which where better than expected.
Don't forget the main unspoken point of KDE and Gnome and many of their applications ! their aim is to bring Windows users to Linux, not to convince geeks who already use Linux and know about Mutt or Pine or whatever, and can also find their way through the multitude of other Linux applications. So the applications need to feel loke Windows applications to attract Windows users duh !
Agree ! plus I don't see the interest of having an ECMA standard if no one could re-implement it due to patents !
Taliban are heavily supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two of the bigest US allies, if the US wanted really to catch him, they would have done this a long time ago.
As it has been said not at all.
For instance Linus own the Linux trademark, and only Linus can define what Linux, is by accepting or rejecting patchs. This is the only way to avoid forks, oherwise you may have hundreds of Linux, and you couldn't tell which one is the official one. Well in fact, in practice, you may have some variation on the Linux Thema with some patchs included or not, but no one can hijack say (Microsoft for instance) and release their own substalially different version of Linux while calling it Linux. The GPL allow them to get the soure code, but they can no longer call Linux if Linus says this is not Linux. They need to find another name.
Huh !! Check your facts dude ! the US alone is responsible for nearly 50% of world CO2 pollution. I think that an american must consume something as 100 times (not exactly sure, but ig gives an order of magnitude) as much energy than an indian ! amazing !? no
>Someone else mentioned that the dep. of defence
>is moving over to linux (see, sometimes it's
>GOOD when people don't read the whole article)
I think it's very important for Linux to have stories like this. "Major corportaion throwing out M$ for Linux in the Desktop". Managers like to quote those stories to support their ideas. Remember a manager is always anxious, is he doing the right decision !? if a big corporation with probably a lot of smart people has done it, then it must a goog thing to do !
>Note that Slashdot can make as much noise as
>they want and it's not going to affect Microsoft
>at all. It's really the big corporate customers
>and the OEMs that have the pull.
I think you are completly wrong here, if you think this, things will never change ! Slashdot as the primary Open Source forum IS having a major effet on technical journalists opinions for instance, and many of them often read Slashdot to jauge how technically and freedom oriented people feel about certain issues.
Many French journals for instance (like 01 informatique and sometimes libération) now routinly report some Slashdot opinions, albeight without mentioning the sources. I also noticed that French Yahoo now quotes Slashdot from time to time (Killustrator issue for example).
So yes Slashdot is minority, but a Vocal one, and history thought us that it's Vocal Minorities who change history.
And things are changing, of course slowly, and people are starting to get the message, you won't displace M$ overnight.
>you should be able to use the software on any
>Linux whether you uses Debian, TurboLinux or
>Open Linux
I must say I have serious doubts about that !
Is the LSB sufficient to make that goal a reality ?
I am not enough knowledgeable about this subjet ! anybody care to comment ?
>Microsoft doesn't listen much to the public anti-
:)
>Microsoft whiners Microsoft does listen to the
>Beta-testers
>One of the other interesting things is that a
>lot of you anti-Microsoft whiners tend to
>misrepresent stories
Well maybe you are suffering from the same syndrom too, think about it
Maybe the Open Source crowd is not the only group who has reacted ! but there have been a lot of stories in the press and I am pretty sure that M$ PR departement who are not idiot, have pressetend that this thing could become a communication debacle !
Open source/Free software is most certainly what can be qualified as a "Vocal Minority"; alas it has also, certainly one of it's other attribute "fundamentalism". But, maybe the two are closely related. You need to be really focused on your believes and dismess other believes if you want to make a difference, or if you want to change things.
History has told us, quite often, that it' "Vocal minorities" who change history.
>Solution: Don't buy the thing for fucks sake.
>Has anyone ever had a gun stuck down their
>throat by an MS employee and been forced to
>purchase MS software? No so what the hell is the
>big deal?
Well, in corporation alas, it doesn't works like this. Most of time, the easiest and less risky solution is to go with an M$ product. To swim against the tide, you need to be highly motivated and you need really a lot of energy, to convince the upper management. Most of the time people just give up, as they don't want to add the this burden for projects which migh be already difficult.
If this is really true, I must say it's rather funny. Yes I knew it was mainly a prison for aristocrats, and not for "les sans culottes" a kind of 5 stars prison !
:) well, it's kinda, sorta marketing for the revolution !!
Anyway ! only the myth, the legend and symbol, count
Yeah ! but for over three or four centuries, it was proverbial that you can't escape from bastille.
The best place I have discovered so far, to download MP3; is audiogalaxy.com. It's web based, You can resume stoped download too. Very easy to use. You can can easily discover new artists too.
Alas I just can't see how they can make it just selling banners. Maybe, by developing new business and consulting, but it will be very tough.
Anyway I wish them all the best, as it will be really sad if Redhat is the only open source compagny to stay alive.
These are sad days ! for linux and open source
Or did I miss something ?
>And, if no one had noticed, we've developed a few
> distributed computing models (freenet comes to
> mind) that can share the content-serving side of
> a serverload across multiple systems (cached
> nearby for your convenience!) that will eschew
> the old days of us slashdotting, well, Slashdot.
And if no one had noticed, we've developed a few distributed computing models (Usenet comes to mind) !!!
This is what Usenet has been made for in the first place, it's distributed, it's p2p before this word was fashionable or the last buzzword, and with groups.google.com it's archivable; searchable, it's the best Web knowledge base I know of, and it will never die !
> It's the momentum that's important not the
> technical excellance.
>I mean, why Linux? There are so many better
>alternatives to Apple and Microsoft. FreeBSD for
>the cheap guys. BeOS for the less cheap guys.
>Linux just doesn't make sense.
I feel You are contradicting yourself here. Even if Linux is less technically capable than FreeBSD, or BeOS which I doubt; it has clearly gathered much more mementum, and it can only gets bigger and better. So given the energy spent in Linux development, and the cumulative effect of development in free software, it's only a matter of time before it gets leaps and bounds better and in "every field" than these two OS.
You said it yourself, it's only momentum that count !!