In the grand old tradition of sensationalism, the story has been completely blown out of proportion. What RedHat is doing is nothing more than repackaging PostgreSQL. How can you guys be such dupes?
Galactic Geek
If you can "sell" an OS that is supposed to be "free", you are going to make money. Make the OS hard enough to use and you will make money on "consulting" too. Great business model.
Galactic Geek
Tim O'Reilly is a hypocrite. He could make all the O'Reilly books freely downloadable in a PDF format. When that happens, he will have any right to talk about open source.
Microsoft has spent millions of dollars and years of their time to build their browser. They have a right to do whatever they want to do with their browser. If you don't like it, don't use it. Simple.
What happened to the open source browser? Is it dying or is it dead? Sun Microsystems was supposed to release a Java broser almost 5 years ago. What happened?
If thousands of programmers are willing to donate their time for free, for no compensation at all, what is the problem here? I like open source because I get to enjoy the fruits of other people's labor. Bill Gates, maybe you should start enjoying them too.
It is the nature of software that, over time, the price of software approaches the marginal cost to produce it, i.e. zero. That's is why formerly high-priced software such as databases, operating systems, etc. can now be had essentially free. How long before companies like Oracle, Siebel, Microsoft will have to lower their prices tremendously to compete against low-cost, good-quality open source software? Also, the hardware prices are falling constantly. Nobody needs a 1 gigahertz chip on their desktop when all they are doing is writing e-mails. I don't see things improving for the technology sector over time; they will only get worse.
I run a web-based business, Geeks4Free.com and my burn rate is less than $10 per month, mostly towards hosting fees. What I use is Apache, MySQL and PHP. Simple and reliable.
I can run my business till end of eternity. If you want to get involved with a dot-com, make sure that the burn rate is low. Otherwise you are history.
NT admins don't install all the patches, because the so called patches sometimes break the apps. There is no elegant way to uninstall patches either. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
O'Reilly used to SELL their web server software while paying lip service to open source software and all. I don't understand how a bunch of smart people like you don't see the hypocrisy of the situation??
Since Tim O'Reilly is always talking about the advantages of open souce technologies, they should start giving back to the community by making their books available for free downloads in a PDF format. It will be great for students and people in poorer parts of the world.
It is hypocritical for them to demand that software writers share the fruits of their labor for free, but then refuse to share O'Reilly's intellectual property for free.
I want to know how Wall Street is going to rob the gullible people in the future. In the last few years, Wall Street was able to create different myths to separate the fools from their money. In that process, they sold us on the visions of B2C, B2B, P2P and all sorts of other business models. Then they told us that "profits are not important". When that didn't fly, they talked about the "new new economy". When that didn't work, they tried to sell us the "wireless future".
I was smart not to put a dime in this bubble market, but there were morons who lost their shirt. I want to know what Wall Street is going to come up with next?
Software companies that abandon their products don't get my respect. If a particular company has a history of abandoning its products, then why should I trust them when they try to sell me their existing products?
Whatever you say about Microsoft, those guys from Redmont rarely ditch one of their babies. (I am not trying to start a flame war here, so don't send me a list of products that MS has abandoned. Those products are a very small percentage of the total number of products that they are working on.)
If you want to be taken seriously, fight till death, no matter what.
The Web is a great research tool. I used to do the resume "my way" till I stumbled upon some really great resumes on the Web. Now even before I start writing my own resume, I surf the Web, looking for cool-sounding phrases and words; and then modify them to suit my needs. As long as it is not blatant plagiarism, it is okay.
Another thing: If you can get your resume in a PDF format, that is very cool.
This SOAP stuff sounds good in theory, but I am sure that it is not going to work in practice. At least not for several years, after tens-of-thousands of programmers have wasted their youth trying to figure out why something doesn't work. Service packs upon service packs. Hot fixes upon hot fixes. Reboots upon reboots. Incompatible versions of MDAC, ADO, DAC, MTS, and on and on. This is going to be one horror story. I shudder in pain.
Of course, I won't be experiencing any of this pain, since I will be happily coding PHP. Just a hunble little scripting language, that PHP, but makes you money. Ha, ha, ha!!
I make money while morons rot in vaporware hell....
This is one of the few ideas I have seen that makes sense. Trademark owners should have their own domain names in the format "mark.category.country.tmk" and they should not be allowed to claim any other domain name that looks remotely like their trademark. Many big corporations have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking and it should be stopped.
Internet was supposed to be for everybody, not just big corporations. Then why is it that only commercial speech is protected?
I don't see any reason why big companies should get any preference when it comes to registering domain names. Domain names should be registered on a first-come-first served basis.
In all this discussion between insanely priced commercial databases and free open-source databases, where does Interbase fit in? Interbase used to be a commercial database, but is free now. Why is there no rush to get Interbase? Galactic Geek- the guy who made Geeks4Free.com famous.
For most web sites, Oracle is an overkill. I run mhy site, geeks4free.com, using MySQL, Apache and PHP on the BSD platform and it just rocks. I see commercial web sites that are slower than my site and they are spending millions of dollars for that!!
If more dot-coms were using my approach, they would still be in business.
Slashdot Mirror
In the grand old tradition of sensationalism, the story has been completely blown out of proportion. What RedHat is doing is nothing more than repackaging PostgreSQL. How can you guys be such dupes?
Galactic Geek
If you can "sell" an OS that is supposed to be "free", you are going to make money. Make the OS hard enough to use and you will make money on "consulting" too. Great business model.
Galactic Geek
Galactic Geek
What happened to the open source browser? Is it dying or is it dead? Sun Microsystems was supposed to release a Java broser almost 5 years ago. What happened?
Galactic Geek
Galactic Geek
It is the nature of software that, over time, the price of software approaches the marginal cost to produce it, i.e. zero. That's is why formerly high-priced software such as databases, operating systems, etc. can now be had essentially free. How long before companies like Oracle, Siebel, Microsoft will have to lower their prices tremendously to compete against low-cost, good-quality open source software? Also, the hardware prices are falling constantly. Nobody needs a 1 gigahertz chip on their desktop when all they are doing is writing e-mails. I don't see things improving for the technology sector over time; they will only get worse.
Galactic Geek
I run a web-based business, Geeks4Free.com and my burn rate is less than $10 per month, mostly towards hosting fees. What I use is Apache, MySQL and PHP. Simple and reliable.
I can run my business till end of eternity. If you want to get involved with a dot-com, make sure that the burn rate is low. Otherwise you are history.
Galactic Geek
That's what geeks need more than anything else.
Galactic Geek
NT admins don't install all the patches, because the so called patches sometimes break the apps. There is no elegant way to uninstall patches either. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Galactic Geek
Half of the world's population has never made a telephone call.
Imagine that!
Galactic Geek
Idiots who talk on a cell phone while driving are killing people. Now, we need this???
Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.
Galactic Geek
O'Reilly used to SELL their web server software while paying lip service to open source software and all. I don't understand how a bunch of smart people like you don't see the hypocrisy of the situation??
Galactic Geek
The government jobs don't have to be low pay. New York City pays pretty good money. As much as 80k for a good Unix admin.
Galactic Geek
Since Tim O'Reilly is always talking about the advantages of open souce technologies, they should start giving back to the community by making their books available for free downloads in a PDF format. It will be great for students and people in poorer parts of the world.
It is hypocritical for them to demand that software writers share the fruits of their labor for free, but then refuse to share O'Reilly's intellectual property for free.
Galactic Geek
My horse can smoke your car.
Galactic Geek
I want to know how Wall Street is going to rob the gullible people in the future. In the last few years, Wall Street was able to create different myths to separate the fools from their money. In that process, they sold us on the visions of B2C, B2B, P2P and all sorts of other business models. Then they told us that "profits are not important". When that didn't fly, they talked about the "new new economy". When that didn't work, they tried to sell us the "wireless future".
I was smart not to put a dime in this bubble market, but there were morons who lost their shirt. I want to know what Wall Street is going to come up with next?
Galactic Geek
Software companies that abandon their products don't get my respect. If a particular company has a history of abandoning its products, then why should I trust them when they try to sell me their existing products?
Whatever you say about Microsoft, those guys from Redmont rarely ditch one of their babies. (I am not trying to start a flame war here, so don't send me a list of products that MS has abandoned. Those products are a very small percentage of the total number of products that they are working on.)
If you want to be taken seriously, fight till death, no matter what.
Galactic Geek
The Web is a great research tool. I used to do the resume "my way" till I stumbled upon some really great resumes on the Web. Now even before I start writing my own resume, I surf the Web, looking for cool-sounding phrases and words; and then modify them to suit my needs. As long as it is not blatant plagiarism, it is okay.
Another thing: If you can get your resume in a PDF format, that is very cool.
Galactic Geek
Is there anybody out there who uses Solaris 8 on a laptop? Is there a commercial vendor who will sell laptops with Solaris pre-installed?
Galactic Geek
This SOAP stuff sounds good in theory, but I am sure that it is not going to work in practice. At least not for several years, after tens-of-thousands of programmers have wasted their youth trying to figure out why something doesn't work. Service packs upon service packs. Hot fixes upon hot fixes. Reboots upon reboots. Incompatible versions of MDAC, ADO, DAC, MTS, and on and on. This is going to be one horror story. I shudder in pain.
Of course, I won't be experiencing any of this pain, since I will be happily coding PHP. Just a hunble little scripting language, that PHP, but makes you money. Ha, ha, ha!!
I make money while morons rot in vaporware hell....
Galactic Geek
This is one of the few ideas I have seen that makes sense. Trademark owners should have their own domain names in the format "mark.category.country.tmk" and they should not be allowed to claim any other domain name that looks remotely like their trademark. Many big corporations have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking and it should be stopped.
Galactic Geeks
Internet was supposed to be for everybody, not just big corporations. Then why is it that only commercial speech is protected?
I don't see any reason why big companies should get any preference when it comes to registering domain names. Domain names should be registered on a first-come-first served basis.
Galactic Geek
In all this discussion between insanely priced commercial databases and free open-source databases, where does Interbase fit in? Interbase used to be a commercial database, but is free now. Why is there no rush to get Interbase?
Galactic Geek- the guy who made Geeks4Free.com famous.
For most web sites, Oracle is an overkill. I run mhy site, geeks4free.com, using MySQL, Apache and PHP on the BSD platform and it just rocks. I see commercial web sites that are slower than my site and they are spending millions of dollars for that!! If more dot-coms were using my approach, they would still be in business.