openSUSE does not ship code which is known to infringe patents or IP, so the patents either get invalidated (lengthy and expensive) or the code disabled / removed. This policy is not affected by the NOVL/MSFT deal at all; quite the contrary, it has always been Novell/SUSE's policy to not ship such code.
Just like openSUSE doesn't ship infringing Linux drivers, or Debian not shipping certain licenses.
"From what I understand, under the MS/Novell agreement, there would be a potential opportunity for maliciously inserting copyrighted material into the codebase of whatever OSS projects Novell is working on."
This is so wrong it isn't even funny. This covenant thing might have bad aspects, but Novell/SUSE's Open Source developers are firmly committed to Open Source and not suddenly "infected" by this deal. We've not received secret communiques from MSFT briefing us about patent infringements we're to introduce.
In fact, our tinfoil hats are reinforced, we're kept in distinct cages from potential infringing information, and any and all valid patent infringements we _would_ learn about would be rewritten in non-infringing ways ASAP. This has even repeatedly been said by Novell's management.
Ah, the joys of logfiles. I believe we greatly enjoyed the encounter of you insulting us, dear "abusenode", even tried to recommend to you that we'd be more than happy if you bought some "professional" software (with a paid for support department;-).
Alas, somehow the network operators liked you so much that you got K-lined. The GNAA is really quite amusing, if you weren't such sorry suckers;-)
People who still care about programming languages are wasting their breath.
Look at the difference between a bad, a good programmer and an excellent programmer. We're talking 1 to 2 to 10 factors in productivity and quality here, easily.
Programming languages? Unless it's a language (or programming paradigm) the programmer doesn't know (in which case it doesn't matter much whether it is Java, C, C++, Perl, Python or ruby) at all, the difference for the same programmer from one to another may exist (depending on how fluent they are), but likely more on the order of 10-20%.
This is much the same like arguing about indentation and whitespace style. None of the common ones is _significantly_ better than the other, and the time spent arguing about them sure ate up any gains they might have ever offered. Pick one and stick to it, amen.
So, the choice of language is almost irrelevant compared to the person (or team) you get to do the job.
For quite some applications, it doesn't even matter whether the interpreter or the compiler is exceptionally fast or produces such code, as long as it gets the job done. (I've seen people tune code for hours, to get it to run 5s faster at a total runtime of 1 minute once per month. While artistically pleasing, it's a waste of time.)
Sure, there's exceptions to this rule. If you want to write a Linux Kernel module, you're essentially forced to write C. Some languages have either special features in the syntax or many libraries available to solve problems in a specific problem field. (Perl really beats C for writing string matching, for example.)
But overall, these don't matter as much as you think they do.
Now, with that said, one exception I'd like to dip into, and why I'm glad that python exists. (Take note I'm a Perl head myself!) Perl allows not one, not two, but several hundreds of ways of doing the same thing. Picking one of the "best" choices to do something is a matter of style, taste and experience. Understanding it is too. So, I'd argue that -good- Perl is slightly beyond the average programmers, because if you had the skills, you'd be at least a good programmer already.
Python/Java, on the other hand, is stricter. (It starts with enforced code formatting and goes from there.) This, to a free-thinker like myself, often feels like an artifical constraint. _I_ want to decide how to do this, damn it! But, if you want to enable average programmers to just get their small hack in quickly and almost cleanly, Python might not be the worst choice, while Perl might rate pretty low.
I still love Perl. And Perl 6 looks like a real improvement, surprisingly both in features as well as in style - that is quite a feat.
Well, it is a question of licensing. Do you really think SUSE/Novell does not want to bundle these packages directly too? Java, Media Players, Codecs? That they are left out as a deliberate hurdle for end-users?
You really can't blame openSUSE for the licenses and software patent issues.
Trust me, if it was possible right now, all of these additional packages would be included. Please help with rewriting superior OSS packages for them and abolishing software patents by engaging in politics and lobbying.
Of course, this is by no means the one & final truth. Nothing like that is going to pop up soon.
Attacking the writing style is useless, instead focus on the content.
I do aggre that it is appears as if he implicitly partitions the whole world into mappers/packers. However, he doesn't - he points out that "packers" are just people who lost their "mapping" skills and need to rediscover them.
And while it probably did not include too much really new information, he links it in some interesting ways. How much of it actually can be applied to your daily surroundings and if it helps you to improve your way of thinking is something only you can say for yourself.
However, for myself, I found some good starting points for working on myself and improving my communication skills.
I don't see the point over modifying the example ks.cfg file which comes with Red Hat. Only that the webbased tool is actually much slower and doesn't offer all the options.
Especially that the ks.cfg created by fezbox.com contains
# This kickstart script was created at FezBox (http://www.fezbox.com), # your best source for customized Linux solutions.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you in fact complaining that openSUSE complies with the license of the Linux kernel? That is rather amazing.
openSUSE does not ship code which is known to infringe patents or IP, so the patents either get invalidated (lengthy and expensive) or the code disabled / removed. This policy is not affected by the NOVL/MSFT deal at all; quite the contrary, it has always been Novell/SUSE's policy to not ship such code.
Just like openSUSE doesn't ship infringing Linux drivers, or Debian not shipping certain licenses.
What the heck is the fuzz about?
"From what I understand, under the MS/Novell agreement, there would be a potential opportunity for maliciously inserting copyrighted material into the codebase of whatever OSS projects Novell is working on."
This is so wrong it isn't even funny. This covenant thing might have bad aspects, but Novell/SUSE's Open Source developers are firmly committed to Open Source and not suddenly "infected" by this deal. We've not received secret communiques from MSFT briefing us about patent infringements we're to introduce.
In fact, our tinfoil hats are reinforced, we're kept in distinct cages from potential infringing information, and any and all valid patent infringements we _would_ learn about would be rewritten in non-infringing ways ASAP. This has even repeatedly been said by Novell's management.
Ah, the joys of logfiles. I believe we greatly enjoyed the encounter of you insulting us, dear "abusenode", even tried to recommend to you that we'd be more than happy if you bought some "professional" software (with a paid for support department ;-).
;-)
Alas, somehow the network operators liked you so much that you got K-lined. The GNAA is really quite amusing, if you weren't such sorry suckers
People who still care about programming languages are wasting their breath.
;-)
Look at the difference between a bad, a good programmer and an excellent programmer. We're talking 1 to 2 to 10 factors in productivity and quality here, easily.
Programming languages? Unless it's a language (or programming paradigm) the programmer doesn't know (in which case it doesn't matter much whether it is Java, C, C++, Perl, Python or ruby) at all, the difference for the same programmer from one to another may exist (depending on how fluent they are), but likely more on the order of 10-20%.
This is much the same like arguing about indentation and whitespace style. None of the common ones is _significantly_ better than the other, and the time spent arguing about them sure ate up any gains they might have ever offered. Pick one and stick to it, amen.
So, the choice of language is almost irrelevant compared to the person (or team) you get to do the job.
For quite some applications, it doesn't even matter whether the interpreter or the compiler is exceptionally fast or produces such code, as long as it gets the job done. (I've seen people tune code for hours, to get it to run 5s faster at a total runtime of 1 minute once per month. While artistically pleasing, it's a waste of time.)
Sure, there's exceptions to this rule. If you want to write a Linux Kernel module, you're essentially forced to write C. Some languages have either special features in the syntax or many libraries available to solve problems in a specific problem field. (Perl really beats C for writing string matching, for example.)
But overall, these don't matter as much as you think they do.
Now, with that said, one exception I'd like to dip into, and why I'm glad that python exists. (Take note I'm a Perl head myself!) Perl allows not one, not two, but several hundreds of ways of doing the same thing. Picking one of the "best" choices to do something is a matter of style, taste and experience. Understanding it is too. So, I'd argue that -good- Perl is slightly beyond the average programmers, because if you had the skills, you'd be at least a good programmer already.
Python/Java, on the other hand, is stricter. (It starts with enforced code formatting and goes from there.) This, to a free-thinker like myself, often feels like an artifical constraint. _I_ want to decide how to do this, damn it! But, if you want to enable average programmers to just get their small hack in quickly and almost cleanly, Python might not be the worst choice, while Perl might rate pretty low.
I still love Perl. And Perl 6 looks like a real improvement, surprisingly both in features as well as in style - that is quite a feat.
End of rant
Well, it is a question of licensing. Do you really think SUSE/Novell does not want to bundle these packages directly too? Java, Media Players, Codecs? That they are left out as a deliberate hurdle for end-users?
You really can't blame openSUSE for the licenses and software patent issues.
Trust me, if it was possible right now, all of these additional packages would be included. Please help with rewriting superior OSS packages for them and abolishing software patents by engaging in politics and lobbying.
Welcome to the wonderful fact-checked and excellent reporting done by Mrs Maureen O'Gara, and her well informed sources ;-)
That SUSE should be owned by the German gov't is just too funny.
Of course, this is by no means the one & final truth. Nothing like that is going to pop up soon.
Attacking the writing style is useless, instead focus on the content.
I do aggre that it is appears as if he implicitly partitions the whole world into mappers/packers. However, he doesn't - he points out that "packers" are just people who lost their "mapping" skills and need to rediscover them.
And while it probably did not include too much really new information, he links it in some interesting ways. How much of it actually can be applied to your daily surroundings and if it helps you to improve your way of thinking is something only you can say for yourself.
However, for myself, I found some good starting points for working on myself and improving my communication skills.
I don't see the point over modifying the example ks.cfg file which comes with Red Hat. Only that the webbased tool is actually much slower and doesn't offer all the options.
Especially that the ks.cfg created by fezbox.com contains
# This kickstart script was created at FezBox (http://www.fezbox.com),
# your best source for customized Linux solutions.
is a bit of an overstatement, isn't it?