Wouldn't you expect the number of competent programmers will grow as the open source movment grows? Consider those points:
1. reading good source is necessary to learn programming - now more good source is avaliable.
2. the concept of playing with code is now open to people who might just not think of it before. (Scientists with programing skills can develop programs that were purchased before)
3. programming toold are cheaper and better than ever. now its getting easier to code.
I'm still waiting for the Search Engine that will GPL its source code.
Probably what's keeping search-engines from doing that is the fear of website owners that will use this as a method of getting their pages rank higher then they should have.
thats too bad. I'd love to take a look at their algorithms and implementations
Well, since so many slashdotters are bothered by their inability to find their very own geek girls (TM) - I think Malda should post a list with all girls on slashdot (where else would the geek girls hang out?) complete with emails so everyone can choose his own geek girl:)
I think that software companies should do what FSF and the Linux did all along, write code to simple and readable that anyone can change it if they need, and a README. Most commercial code is unreadable compared to free code because free code was designed so that any programmer will understand it fairly quick. Ofcourse most free software (atlist gnu's) isn't object oriented which makes it much much more readable as you don't have to read lots of classes before you understand what's going on.
Over the years linux developers tryed to make linux more and more mainstream and frienlier to the avarage user. I'm wandering why.
Avarage users allready have an OS they are happy with, they don't care about which os they are using and they don't care much about freedom and "philosophy".
On the other hand - until linux - programmers, hacker, and geeks didn't have a decent operating system to use (unices were expansive and non-pc)
So we went out and built ourselves a great OS - only to watch it become yet another mainstream OS.
Why do we need that? Why can't there be 2 OS's so each can choose the one that fits his need.
I believe Linux should remain geeks oriented and free. It worked great so far. why not continue?
I'm not saying we shouldn't make it friendly - most geeks appreciat a friendly system as well, it makes our lives easier and let us concentrate on our important goals. But lets keep in mind what makes linux unique
Taking ideas from an RMS speech - I suggest that we should leave most systems wide open, and totally disconnect from the net anything that requires top-secrecy.
Suppose that all systems were open, then: 1. no one would hack any system, most files on most systems are not very interesting and if there were no challange in cracking them no one would bother.
2. Sysadmins would have time for more interesting things than building barricades around the systems. more work would get done.
3. if someone really needed to get access to some machine he wouldn't be stop by security measures (I have some files on that machine but I don't have access anymore and all my important work has to wait until tomorrow when the sysadmin comes bck in)
The good side is that after being hacked by BO stupid users who actually actuvate dubious files will learn. and if they won't - they deserve it.
The good side is that equally stupid user i.e. the crackers will actualy feel sooooo smart. The good point of that is that sooner or later they will be caught, thats the punishment for stupid hackers.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't you expect the number of competent programmers will grow as the open source movment grows? Consider those points:
1. reading good source is necessary to learn programming - now more good source is avaliable.
2. the concept of playing with code is now open to people who might just not think of it before. (Scientists with programing skills can develop programs that were purchased before)
3. programming toold are cheaper and better than ever. now its getting easier to code.
that gets me thinking:
If I go to a company and say - I found those security breaks in your system, I can fix them if you'd pay me.
Is that blackmail?
I'm still waiting for the Search Engine that will GPL its source code.
Probably what's keeping search-engines from doing that is the fear of website owners that will use this as a method of getting their pages rank higher then they should have.
thats too bad. I'd love to take a look at their algorithms and implementations
Well, since so many slashdotters are bothered by their inability to find their very own geek girls (TM) - I think Malda should post a list with all girls on slashdot (where else would the geek girls hang out?) complete with emails so everyone can choose his own geek girl :)
Happy hunting!
Giraffit
I think that software companies should do what FSF and the Linux did all along, write code to simple and readable that anyone can change it if they need, and a README.
Most commercial code is unreadable compared to free code because free code was designed so that any programmer will understand it fairly quick.
Ofcourse most free software (atlist gnu's) isn't object oriented which makes it much much more readable as you don't have to read lots of classes before you understand what's going on.
Over the years linux developers tryed to make linux more and more mainstream and frienlier to the avarage user. I'm wandering why.
Avarage users allready have an OS they are happy with, they don't care about which os they are using and they don't care much about freedom and "philosophy".
On the other hand - until linux - programmers, hacker, and geeks didn't have a decent operating system to use (unices were expansive and non-pc)
So we went out and built ourselves a great OS - only to watch it become yet another mainstream OS.
Why do we need that? Why can't there be 2 OS's so each can choose the one that fits his need.
I believe Linux should remain geeks oriented and free. It worked great so far. why not continue?
I'm not saying we shouldn't make it friendly - most geeks appreciat a friendly system as well, it makes our lives easier and let us concentrate on our important goals. But lets keep in mind what makes linux unique
Apperantly every company - however unrelated to web content is trying to jump on the portal bandwagon.
Those pesky "make us you homepage" buttons are everywhere. (including in a site of a router producing company!)
Well, buzz words like "portal" and "open source" allways do strange things to the commercial world.
Taking ideas from an RMS speech - I suggest that we should leave most systems wide open, and totally disconnect from the net anything that requires top-secrecy.
Suppose that all systems were open, then:
1. no one would hack any system, most files on most systems are not very interesting and if there were no challange in cracking them no one would bother.
2. Sysadmins would have time for more interesting things than building barricades around the systems. more work would get done.
3. if someone really needed to get access to some machine he wouldn't be stop by security measures (I have some files on that machine but I don't have access anymore and all my important work has to wait until tomorrow when the sysadmin comes bck in)
The good side is that after being hacked by BO stupid users who actually actuvate dubious files will learn. and if they won't - they deserve it.
The good side is that equally stupid user i.e. the crackers will actualy feel sooooo smart.
The good point of that is that sooner or later they will be caught, thats the punishment for stupid hackers.
staroffice supports .doc and I think there are few other tools as well.
see, you don't have to use m$ at all. go spread the word!