Well, the reporter didn't write down everything I said. Sun must indeed ship source for the drivers. The point is that they may use GPL drivers on Solaris without distributing Solaris source. They can integrate the entire Linux TCP/IP stack if they want, which might be interesting in the case of IPV6. Stallman said he'd fix this in GPL version 3.
The GPL makes an exception in the case of components that are normaly distributed with the OS and compiler, as long as the GPL component is not distributed with them. The exception was intended to allow people to run Emacs on the Sun, long ago before there was a Free OS. It (in my opinion, and I'm not an attorney) unfortunately does not distinguish between executables and drivers sufficiently to disallow it from being applied to drivers. That means that you can use GPL drivers with any OS as long as you follow the GPL requriements and distribute the source code for the driver, and you don't distribute the driver with the OS (thus the run-time loading). Sorry, but that's the case as far as I can tell. I don't have to like it, but we in the free software community should honor agreements as they are written, not as they were intended but we didn't fully write down our intent. I wrote RMS about this problem and he said he'd fix it in GPL 3.
This is very bad news because it extends the DMCA to television reception and video recording. It will be used to close systems like the TiVo and to prevent Open Source software from being used to view television broadcasts.
The projects actually are largely self-organizing but that doesn't mean they are leadership-free. Generally, a lot of people organize around one coordinator that they trust. That coordinator doesn't micro-manage, he coordinates.
I think the author set out with a poor understanding of the process, took a claim about the process much too far, and then set out to disprove a claim that wouldn't have needed to be disproven except that he took it too far in the first place.
It can be sold, but it is sold by 50 different companies, not all (or even not any) of which were surveyed. Nor are the free downloads surveyed.
In any case, the survey is bogus. Counting installed systems would be about 10 times as accurate as counting sales. How many organizations buy 1 CD and use it to install 10 systems?
In Linux you either join the crowd or hit a brick wall
No, thanks, leave that kind of thinking back in the Microsoft world.
Corel is failing because of other reasons: their policy to be bad citizens of the free software community rather than good partners is the biggest reason. Nobody knowledgable wanted to recommend them. I still remember suggesting to a Corel P.R. person that they assign someone to listen to the free software community's complaints online and address what they said. She actually sneered. These are the folks who made major changes to KDE and then held them back 6 months, until they could no longer be merged back into KDE. They took software that had to a large extent been written by legal minors and applied a license that didn't allow those same legal minors to use the software! They changed the licenses of other people's software for a beta test in ways that violated those licenses.
After that, we get to their applications. Word Perfect is a Windows executable running emulated under WINE. This is so absurd that people don't believe it unless they actually test the software. It doesn't work very well. IMO the pending GPL release of StarOffice strikes the death knell for Corel. Most of their advantages go down the drain with that.
Anyway, the study is farcial because it counts sales, not installed systems. Thus, Debian doesn't get reported.
Quoting DJB: If you want to distribute modified versions of qmail (including ports, no matter how minor the changes are) you'll have to get
my approval.
IMO that's a genuine lack of freedom. Next time you have a question like this, would you please leave out the gratuitous insult?
In his place, I would publicize the checksum of the "official version" and let people do what they want with unofficial versions. I would use a trademark to distinguish official and unofficial versions. Since I started using that strategy for the official Debian CD ISO image, it's worked pretty well.
It's being port-scanned continuously. I didn't count them, but I'd have to say thousands. At least a dozen people wrote me to point out the fact that the telnet port is open (although it's a nice encrypted telnet).
Well, how was it not reliable, and how does that compare to Mir? Don't count the fact that its orbit decayed, that was because they underestimated the drag of vestigal atmosphere in low orbit, left it tumbling instead of in an "aerodynamic" configuration, and nobody drove up to give it a push. People thought space was a more pure vacumm until skylab and "shuttle glow".
I should also add, without an obvious penetration (except for the simple mail hack we actually invite on the web page). The fact that it ran 50 days without a reboot would not necessarily interest security people, except as anecdotal evidence that nobody was able to remotely crash the kernel.
Dan is a pretty interesting guy. I just wish he would change his take on licensing. None of his replacements for other programs have OSD-compliant licensing, as far as I'm aware, and IMO his reasons for that aren't good enough. The result is that people write replacements for his replacements! The Postfix mail delivery agent is a good example of this.
We put a Debian "potato" system up as WeWantHackers.com and it's been up 50 days without a reboot. Of course, the web page on the site says we aren't really looking for computer crime...
Legitimate accounts of the space pen development seem to say that it was Fisher's own money. I find this reassuring, even though I doubt the amount stated.
The Fisher corporate office is in Boulder city on the route between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam. It doesn't look like the kind of establishment that runs $2M research programs. I'm not putting them down - I can't even spell the name for the semi-solid ink, no less pronounce it. But I suspect there's a little hyperbole involved in the price tag on that research.
OK, PARDON ME FOR SHOUTING but I'm not getting your attention. The story that you quoted says that Fisher spent $2M of his own money to develop the pen. Maybe he did - I'm doubtful about the amount. But the urban rumour is that the U.S. spent the money. That isn't so.
I keep getting spams from Key3Media (the new name for ZD Events) about their trade shows. Unfortunately, every time I use my email to register for one show they take it as an invitation to spam me about the others. Among these shows are COMDEX and Linux Business Expo. Can't we work on our own trade shows about their spam policies?
I think Fisher has said elsewhere that he spent a lot of money on research to make the pen. Nobody's shown yet any evidence that the U.S. government spent a lot of money to make it.
The lots of money to develop a pen story is said to be an urban legend.
As other people have mentioned, pencils make dust, which is a problem in the microgravity environment. You either clog your filters with it or you breathe it.
I don't like the idea of jury-rigged life support, though if it keeps me breathing I will live with it for exactly as long as it's necessary. Those oxygen-emitting candles that the Russians use are especially scary.
I think we started out with the goal of losing no lives. We lost more anyway, but I'm not sure the Soviets #1 goal was to lose no lives.
Gee. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or something?
I don't think Mir is much different from Skylab, which would have survived until today except that we put all of our eggs in the Shuttle basket and then had nothing to maintain its orbit after that solid-fuel firecracker did what firecrackers often do. Had Skylab survived, it might be just as nasty today:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Bruce
Oh. Never mind :-)
Thanks
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
I think the author set out with a poor understanding of the process, took a claim about the process much too far, and then set out to disprove a claim that wouldn't have needed to be disproven except that he took it too far in the first place.
Bruce
In any case, the survey is bogus. Counting installed systems would be about 10 times as accurate as counting sales. How many organizations buy 1 CD and use it to install 10 systems?
Thanks
Bruce
No, thanks, leave that kind of thinking back in the Microsoft world.
Corel is failing because of other reasons: their policy to be bad citizens of the free software community rather than good partners is the biggest reason. Nobody knowledgable wanted to recommend them. I still remember suggesting to a Corel P.R. person that they assign someone to listen to the free software community's complaints online and address what they said. She actually sneered. These are the folks who made major changes to KDE and then held them back 6 months, until they could no longer be merged back into KDE. They took software that had to a large extent been written by legal minors and applied a license that didn't allow those same legal minors to use the software! They changed the licenses of other people's software for a beta test in ways that violated those licenses.
After that, we get to their applications. Word Perfect is a Windows executable running emulated under WINE. This is so absurd that people don't believe it unless they actually test the software. It doesn't work very well. IMO the pending GPL release of StarOffice strikes the death knell for Corel. Most of their advantages go down the drain with that.
Anyway, the study is farcial because it counts sales, not installed systems. Thus, Debian doesn't get reported.
Bruce
IMO that's a genuine lack of freedom. Next time you have a question like this, would you please leave out the gratuitous insult?
In his place, I would publicize the checksum of the "official version" and let people do what they want with unofficial versions. I would use a trademark to distinguish official and unofficial versions. Since I started using that strategy for the official Debian CD ISO image, it's worked pretty well.
Bruce
It's being port-scanned continuously. I didn't count them, but I'd have to say thousands. At least a dozen people wrote me to point out the fact that the telnet port is open (although it's a nice encrypted telnet).
Anyway, that's 'crackers' surely?
Indeed. Read the web page on the site.
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
Hey, for $4M I'd change my name to ibiblio :-)
The Fisher corporate office is in Boulder city on the route between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam. It doesn't look like the kind of establishment that runs $2M research programs. I'm not putting them down - I can't even spell the name for the semi-solid ink, no less pronounce it. But I suspect there's a little hyperbole involved in the price tag on that research.
Bruce
Bruce
Am I getting through now? Thank you.
Bruce
Oh yes, it's conductive.
I think Fisher has said elsewhere that he spent a lot of money on research to make the pen. Nobody's shown yet any evidence that the U.S. government spent a lot of money to make it.
As other people have mentioned, pencils make dust, which is a problem in the microgravity environment. You either clog your filters with it or you breathe it.
I think we started out with the goal of losing no lives. We lost more anyway, but I'm not sure the Soviets #1 goal was to lose no lives.
Bruce
I don't think Mir is much different from Skylab, which would have survived until today except that we put all of our eggs in the Shuttle basket and then had nothing to maintain its orbit after that solid-fuel firecracker did what firecrackers often do. Had Skylab survived, it might be just as nasty today :-)
Bruce
Bruce