This sounds as if it is meant to put doubt upon Linux in the customer's eyes, so that the customers will stick with SCO Unix on their Intel platforms. Perhaps this is a desperate tactic, but it's a failing one. The patents that applied to Unix have expired, and the other Unix IP isn't all owned by SCO - The Open Group has some, for example. It's doubtful that newer fundamental patents are in SCO's hands.
There's also the GPL issue. A lot of people are confused regarding who would not have permission to distribute under the GPL patent terms. It would be anyone who owns the patent, and anyone who has acquired a license to the patent - unless that license applies to all GPL programs. So, SCO and its customers and licensees would effectively be locked out of using GPL code. Not the rest of the community.
There's also the matter of other companies that hold patents and would step on SCO hard.
If they had just done a press release publicizing that their corporation was considering suicide, it might have had a better effect.
Bruce
Sometimes, expense doesn't matter
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One great application for this, if it works, is in helping to bootstrap extraterrestrial habitation. The problem is not to get all of the stuff there (Mars, wherever), but to make new stuff once you are there because you can not possibly afford the delta-V to bring everything. Without this sort of technology (or nanotech, about which I am dubious) once there you are limited to fabrication of early 1900's technology.
But it's a while before we see a device like this replicate itself. That is the turning point.
I wouldn't have stated it quite so aggressively, but I have to agree. I used to run Sendmail on the Debian list server, around the time it got to 100,000 emails per day (it's probably at a Million now). It ran on a 486, with probably 32 meg of RAM (this was 5 or 6 years ago). Sendmail, of course, bogged down. I switched to qmail and noticed a tremendous performance increase. After qmail was fully released and I became disenchanted with Dan's non-licensing scheme, I was no longer the Debian list manager but switched my own operation to Postfix, which works admirably.
The thing that Sendmail did well, address rewriting, is irrelevant for today's net, and can be done more readably in many other ways. Even a Perl script is much more readable:-) Installing one as a Postfix transport is trivial.
I'm surprised that there isn't more business action around Postfix.
5000 copies is a good run for a technical book. 20000 is a smash hit. I think you might make about $8 each, but don't hold me to that. I make $1. This really small number of copies is one reason I think Open Source won't hurt.
Mark Taub, executive editor for Prentice Hall PTR, works with these books in the same way as he does with all of their print technical books. He fields a pretty large team - I see about 8 names credited, and one of them is a company so I don't know how many people that is. I do not play much part in the book production, my role is acquisition of new books and setting policy for the overall series, although I can get more involved if I see a need to do so.
I did a list a while back, and it turned out that my authors are more in touch with new stuff than I am. For example, I think I might have mentioned intrusion detection, but didn't put Snort on the list. I would rather that you think about what you have invested your time in, and what special areas you can contribute to. Is there an area you currently have expertise in where the rest of the world would profit from a brain-dump?
I'd position the current paradigm we are using in these terms:
These are paper books just like all of the other paper books in the book store. We pay the authors the same, we wholesale them the same, and you pay for them the same. They happen to be under a license that lets you shove them in the copier with impunity. A bit later, not too long, you get nice clean electronic "source code". People who don't want to pay for the book could use it, but we don't think there really are a ton of them. The license is a real plus to the author, as the books need never die even if the publisher loses interest, and there is no fight about electronic rights as authors are having with most publishers. We might be able to do second editions a bit more often, if we get enough community help.
Well, Prentice Hall PTR is not the division that makes text books. PTR makes technical books. One victory at a time, and that next one might be a good deal more difficult. But it's already happening at the colleges, rather than the publishers.
Well, I think I have only seen one book proposal refused so far. So, we are open to what you propose.
They should relate to Open Source software, either as user documentation or as developer documentation. I suppose there are some "Open Source" topics that are not about software - either hardware or policy - and those would work too. If you want to do something else, but it's a technical book, we might be able to help.
Generally you can ship a CD with the book, so you can make sure that all of the examples are distributed, and you can make sure the version of the software you are writing about is distributed with the book.
Whatever we can convert the.doc file into. Yes, Prentice PTR is still a.doc file shop. I think the XML format used by OpenOffice might be best. I have used OpenOffice to read the books.
Mostly I am looking for user or developer documentation for Free Software. I would hope that I'll get some of the software authors, but I recognize that many of them would rather code. Note also that writing a book does not make you wealthy (me neither). It doesn't pay as well as consulting. On the other hand, if you aren't working anyway... The benefit of writing a book is that you are valued more as an employee, consultant, or scholar. You know the cliche: He wrote the book about it!
It will be in an editable format. We would like your changes for the second edition, after all. Unfortunately, they are still operating a.doc file shop there at Prentice. But we have OpenOffice, which can turn.doc files into its own XML format, as well as several other open formats. I have had no problem using OpenOffice to read the books.
Open Publication License 1.0 with no options taken. It passes the Open Source Definition in that form. OSI will not certify the license because it is actually 4 separate licenses, depending on which of those boxes you check, and only one of them is an Open Source license. I'll try to get an OSI-certified license in place for later works. OSI has really only done one so far that is for text rather than software.
Richard will be annoyed. But then I've done a few things to piss him off lately. I hope he will be somewhat consoled by the fact that the books are free software.
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And my whole book series, too. At least it's sewage that sells well, helps people get a job done, and gets good reviews :-)
There's also the GPL issue. A lot of people are confused regarding who would not have permission to distribute under the GPL patent terms. It would be anyone who owns the patent, and anyone who has acquired a license to the patent - unless that license applies to all GPL programs. So, SCO and its customers and licensees would effectively be locked out of using GPL code. Not the rest of the community.
There's also the matter of other companies that hold patents and would step on SCO hard.
If they had just done a press release publicizing that their corporation was considering suicide, it might have had a better effect.
Bruce
But it's a while before we see a device like this replicate itself. That is the turning point.
Bruce
Bruce
The thing that Sendmail did well, address rewriting, is irrelevant for today's net, and can be done more readably in many other ways. Even a Perl script is much more readable :-) Installing one as a Postfix transport is trivial.
I'm surprised that there isn't more business action around Postfix.
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
It's free.
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
These are paper books just like all of the other paper books in the book store. We pay the authors the same, we wholesale them the same, and you pay for them the same. They happen to be under a license that lets you shove them in the copier with impunity. A bit later, not too long, you get nice clean electronic "source code". People who don't want to pay for the book could use it, but we don't think there really are a ton of them. The license is a real plus to the author, as the books need never die even if the publisher loses interest, and there is no fight about electronic rights as authors are having with most publishers. We might be able to do second editions a bit more often, if we get enough community help.
Thanks
Bruce
They should relate to Open Source software, either as user documentation or as developer documentation. I suppose there are some "Open Source" topics that are not about software - either hardware or policy - and those would work too. If you want to do something else, but it's a technical book, we might be able to help.
Generally you can ship a CD with the book, so you can make sure that all of the examples are distributed, and you can make sure the version of the software you are writing about is distributed with the book.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce