As far as ACS/PostgreSQL goes, we've given the project a free server and definitely support it. I offered money to the PostgreSQL group to pay for them to implement an "Oracle syntax SQL parser" (so that all kinds of Oracle-based apps could run on Postgres, not just ACS).
Would you care to elaborate on that? Was the offer discussed, rejected? What exactly is missing? PostgreSQL supports a good deal of Oracle'isms here and there. OTOH, most PostgreSQL developers are pretty busy on other projects so actual man-hours might go a longer way.
I think the amount of BSD code that Micriosoft and Sun hoisted into their proprietary OSes is scandalous. The developers and UC Berkeley got virtually nothing back from them.
UC Berkeley is funded by the taxes that, amongst others, Microsoft and Sun pay. That was the original idea behind the BSD license.
Please include InterBase in your list of open source databases. A public beta of InterBase 6.0 for Linux, Solaris and Windows has recently been released for download. InterBase will be licensed under the MPL 1.1 license model.
The GPL only says (in essence) that if you distribute the program you must accompany it with the source code. A patent on the techniques employed in the source code doesn't prevent you from doing this, but it will (potentially) prevent you from being allowed to run the program legally, which is something completely different.
Anyone ever heard of this things called X? It allows me to run applications over the Internet today, and did so many years ago. It's not tied to any particular programming language or some retarded markup. It also has reasonable security features. You should check it out sometime.
But wait, Jim Seymour must be running this other operating system with propriatory windowing system. Too bad for him.
Last time I checked you could only patent a process, not an idea.
That means they could patent the process of playing back "any kind of" digital music (I think not), or they could patent the process of storing digital music "regardless of storage format" (I think not), or some part of the process in between.
Seemingly, what was patented here was the idea of having a portable digital music player that you can fill up with music from the internet. But that's not only not patentable, but, as many people pointed out, we could do that way before 1995.
Meanwhile, I am still waiting for this GNU Operating System he keeps talking about. I mean, they have been working for 15 years on an operating system and still don't have a stable kernel. As far as I know, the operating system is the kernel. Bad planning if you ask me. Sure, the GNU utilities and applications are great but the operating system is called Linux or *BSD or whatever.
The difference between Open Source and Free
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RMS Responds
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· Score: 1
The difference is that SAP R/3 is open source (in the sense that the source is open, not necessarily in the OSI's view -- not sure), whereas it is not Free (as in freedom, but we all know that it isn't free costwise either).
That's pretty easy if you ask me (no insult intended) and I have to agree with RMS totally on the importance of this difference.
The problem here is that Open Source software is something slightly different than Free (libre) Software. The SAP software is open source -- you get the source code with it and can modify it for your purposes all you want (although there are only a few documented cases of this succeeding) -- whereas the SAP software is hardly free (libre or gratuit) by any standards.
Certainly, free software is a subset of open source software. So what's next? FSF certification? Why do we have to certify everything? Isn't the key to freedom that you can do whatever you want? This proposed certification is not going to help that at all.
I have a few problems with this key recovery idea:
What algorithms do they want to use? An algorithm that has some sort of superkey can't be very good. Otherwise, would I have to send them a key everytime I encrypt something? (Of course I would do that over a secure connection, right?:)
Everybody knows that the stored keys will be used for unlawful purposes. The NSA is about the least trustworthy organization on the planet. Even those corporations that frequently pay it off know that.
They can't seriously believe that criminals will use their crappy endorsed products. Sure, many stupid ones will, but clever ones won't.
How do they plan on outlawing other encryption? There's an "unbreakable" encryption algorithm in chapter 12 of my math book; what prevents me from using it?
As far as I am concerned, they'll never get away with that. Maybe laws will get passed, but this will never end up working.
This article came out three weeks ago! You should try to be a little more cutting edge.
Actually, in the same issue they do their own little messed up comparison of web servers, which I tried to post also three weeks ago in the aftermath of Mindcraft. Well, go there and read it now.
The problem is the local calls. In Germany, there are so many phone companies around, it's not even funny. In fact, long distance charges in Germany are now lower than in the U.S. Same with cell phones. (The idea of having to pay when someone calls you over a cell phone strikes Germans as at least as odd as the U.S. crypto laws:)
No but they all have to buy their connectivity from the former monopolist; only a few have a few wires of their own. And hardly any of these wires cover the "Last Mile" into your home. So no matter where and what you call, you have to go through a monopolist's line for which a per minute charge applies. The margins those competitive carriers get in the end are miniscule, evidenced by the fact that long-distance calls are almost getting cheaper than local calls.
As long as the former monopolies hang on to the local phone lines, I don't see anything happen.
As far as this strike is concerned, there was one in Germany last November. The only thing I remember was people saying that the internet was never faster than on that day.
What is the Free Software Foundation doing in this matter? Sure they whine about software patents being introduced in the EU (possibly). But have they actually formed a committee or something at least?
I think everyone here would agree that patents are the biggest threat to free software right now, much more than the copyright issue. So what are they waiting for?
This is nothing against distributions. It is against people saying they got this distribution and they tried that distribution and then they switched back to the old one.
What is a distribution? It's a bunch of software on a couple of CD's. Sure it's nice to have one to start out, but then wouldn't it make more sense to upgrade the software you actually want directly from the creator?
What's the merit of installing RedHat 6.0 over 5.2 (which would apply in my case)? I spent a lot of time configuring my system the way I want it, I don't need anything overwriting it. Yes, I know, it upgrades cleanly or whatever, but the distributions are already outdated when they get on the market.
It seems to me that what is really going on here is this brand-mania in its infancy. Some people are Slackware-hackers. Oooh. Others insist Linux is unusable unless it's from RedHat. I say Linux is unusable unless you know what's happening inside of your system (whether or not that is good). To my knowledge none of the distributions prevent you from doing just that, but some peole do not appear to be interested in it.
My system hardly resembles the RedHat 5.2 anymore but it's my system and it's customized for me and I do not feel like trying other distributions just to join the discussion.
Transmeta is probably the biggest rumour mill in the computing community today. Maybe they should collect rumours on their website, together with the Linus picture of the week, put some banners ads up there, and a link to [your associate's program here]. Then they can stop working on what they're working on now altogether and their IPO will still be one of the hugest ever.
Perhaps that was their plan all along and they're laughing their asses off every day.
Certainly, at this point in time the Russian leadership will avoid doing anything that will seriously piss off NATO -- as they keep saying anyway.
But the question is, how long can they still do that. One house of the parliament has already approved arms deliveries, and the other one would most likely follow suit if asked.
Pretty soon there will be elections for parliament and I do not believe that the "moderate" forces will have any gains in these.
If, as pointed out, the civilian casualties in Yugoslavia rise, I don't think this Russian suck-up stance will last much longer.
Slashdot Mirror
PostgreSQL runs on Windows NT just fine.
SELECT * FROM tablename ORDER BY random() LIMIT 1;
Would you care to elaborate on that? Was the offer discussed, rejected? What exactly is missing? PostgreSQL supports a good deal of Oracle'isms here and there. OTOH, most PostgreSQL developers are pretty busy on other projects so actual man-hours might go a longer way.
UC Berkeley is funded by the taxes that, amongst others, Microsoft and Sun pay. That was the original idea behind the BSD license.
I think will is the key word here.
The GPL only says (in essence) that if you distribute the program you must accompany it with the source code. A patent on the techniques employed in the source code doesn't prevent you from doing this, but it will (potentially) prevent you from being allowed to run the program legally, which is something completely different.
But wait, Jim Seymour must be running this other operating system with propriatory windowing system. Too bad for him.
Well, it still has a few HURDles to pass.
That means they could patent the process of playing back "any kind of" digital music (I think not), or they could patent the process of storing digital music "regardless of storage format" (I think not), or some part of the process in between.
Seemingly, what was patented here was the idea of having a portable digital music player that you can fill up with music from the internet. But that's not only not patentable, but, as many people pointed out, we could do that way before 1995.
Meanwhile, I am still waiting for this GNU Operating System he keeps talking about. I mean, they have been working for 15 years on an operating system and still don't have a stable kernel. As far as I know, the operating system is the kernel. Bad planning if you ask me. Sure, the GNU utilities and applications are great but the operating system is called Linux or *BSD or whatever.
That's pretty easy if you ask me (no insult intended) and I have to agree with RMS totally on the importance of this difference.
Certainly, free software is a subset of open source software. So what's next? FSF certification? Why do we have to certify everything? Isn't the key to freedom that you can do whatever you want? This proposed certification is not going to help that at all.
This ought to be a poll. "I am here because I am a . . ." Then we'd finally know what all this is really about. I'll submit it.
- What algorithms do they want to use? An algorithm that has some sort of superkey can't be very good. Otherwise, would I have to send them a key everytime I encrypt something? (Of course I would do that over a secure connection, right?
:) - Everybody knows that the stored keys will be used for unlawful purposes. The NSA is about the least trustworthy organization on the planet. Even those corporations that frequently pay it off know that.
- They can't seriously believe that criminals will use their crappy endorsed products. Sure, many stupid ones will, but clever ones won't.
- How do they plan on outlawing other encryption? There's an "unbreakable" encryption algorithm in chapter 12 of my math book; what prevents me from using it?
As far as I am concerned, they'll never get away with that. Maybe laws will get passed, but this will never end up working.As far as I am concerned, Netscape/Mozilla is dead. By the time they release 5.0 we'll have IE 7.0 and 50 million new web standards.
Perhaps this Opera for Linux turns out to be nice. I'd even pay money for anything but Netscape.
Actually, in the same issue they do their own little messed up comparison of web servers, which I tried to post also three weeks ago in the aftermath of Mindcraft. Well, go there and read it now.
No but they all have to buy their connectivity from the former monopolist; only a few have a few wires of their own. And hardly any of these wires cover the "Last Mile" into your home. So no matter where and what you call, you have to go through a monopolist's line for which a per minute charge applies. The margins those competitive carriers get in the end are miniscule, evidenced by the fact that long-distance calls are almost getting cheaper than local calls.
As long as the former monopolies hang on to the local phone lines, I don't see anything happen.
As far as this strike is concerned, there was one in Germany last November. The only thing I remember was people saying that the internet was never faster than on that day.
I think everyone here would agree that patents are the biggest threat to free software right now, much more than the copyright issue. So what are they waiting for?
What is a distribution? It's a bunch of software on a couple of CD's. Sure it's nice to have one to start out, but then wouldn't it make more sense to upgrade the software you actually want directly from the creator?
What's the merit of installing RedHat 6.0 over 5.2 (which would apply in my case)? I spent a lot of time configuring my system the way I want it, I don't need anything overwriting it. Yes, I know, it upgrades cleanly or whatever, but the distributions are already outdated when they get on the market.
It seems to me that what is really going on here is this brand-mania in its infancy. Some people are Slackware-hackers. Oooh. Others insist Linux is unusable unless it's from RedHat. I say Linux is unusable unless you know what's happening inside of your system (whether or not that is good). To my knowledge none of the distributions prevent you from doing just that, but some peole do not appear to be interested in it.
My system hardly resembles the RedHat 5.2 anymore but it's my system and it's customized for me and I do not feel like trying other distributions just to join the discussion.
Perhaps that was their plan all along and they're laughing their asses off every day.
But the question is, how long can they still do that. One house of the parliament has already approved arms deliveries, and the other one would most likely follow suit if asked.
Pretty soon there will be elections for parliament and I do not believe that the "moderate" forces will have any gains in these.
If, as pointed out, the civilian casualties in Yugoslavia rise, I don't think this Russian suck-up stance will last much longer.
(I least I hope it won't.)