I think this is only a problem if you are distributing binaries to others. As far as I know If you are using and developing things in house for your own use with GPL'd code then there is no requirement to release your modifications back into to the original source tree.
One of the suggestions is that the new GPL should address patent concerns. While one half of me thinks this should be addressed - the other half thinks that doing this might show an acceptance and recognition of software patents by this chunk of the Open Source community. This could be a dangerous thing to do.
possible way around this? Suppose these schema's are GPL incompatible. Would it be possible for software such as Open Office to use the schema's but not include them as part of the distribution? for example- if i downloaded my favorite GPL'd office application -would It be possible to have some sort of wizard download the scheme from Microsoft and then plug-in to my chosen package? That way its technically not a part of the distribution...
One was to create a website which linked to "legal" mp3 files? Many bands and indie record labels offer free mp3 downloads on their sites eg http://www.toopure.com/.... Once an MP3 file has been released for free how can it be illegal to share it?
In answer to your question is that the term Open Source in non-license specific - as you rightly suggest there are dozens of open source licenses in active use. Which is why i asked the question. And can these patented things be used in *Any* Open Source Project or just Open Source projects that are under the OCDL ?
It looks fairly cheap on the face of it for an 8mb line but id say there are other variables to take into consideration. Even so this should push the other broadbad companies (nt(hel)l) into reducing their prices and increasing speeds.
Download speeds of up to 8Mb
Upload speeds of up to 400K
Contention ratio of 33:1
Massive download allowance of up to 500GB per month
Unless aformentioned camera's are forced upon photographers by law or something- Papparazzi will just avoid buying and using camera's with this technology. The problem is that it is reliant on the person taking the picture to have the magic circuit inside. And lets face it if you are going to be taking pictures of celbrities baring all - or whatever - you aint gonna pick a camera thats not going to do its job properly.
over 1,600 patents are being contributed to the open source community from the open solaris website. now the question remains when the refer to the "Open Source Community" are they referring to Open Source as in their CDDL licence - or Open Source Community as it is normally interpreted? Not that I support software patents at all though mind.
FYI and anyone else for that matter... eXeem lite appears to work well under the latest Crossover Wine... Of course that doesnt negate the requirement for a less encumbered open source incarnation.
Re:Linux Desktop Thoughts...
on
Linux, Inc.
·
· Score: 1
What's stopping someone from writing an entire environment like OS X from the ground up, around and on top of Linux, and creating an OS X like environment that is as complete and modern as either OS X or Windows?
Whats stopping them - nothing - i am sure there are , have been and will be efforts to do this. But there is one huge stumbling block- That is Apple could make it succeed because they control the hardware in addition to the software. They could have done the same with the Linux kernel. Microsoft have the x86 hardware wrapped up with their OEM's. To successfully pull off an feat like this would be an impressive thing. The trouble is that if it wasnt heavily gpl'd or contained too much proprietary stuff it would get poo-pooed by a lot of people.
look at this...
http://www.rocklyte.com/athene/index.html
not sure if it uses X11 but its and interesting diversion from the norm at least...
UMDs are 2.4-inch optical discs in protective cases that have a data storage capacity of 1.8GB.:: (from the article)
Why would anyone want to do that when it can play a TINY selections of music and movies from a single company.
1.8gb ? Thats 2 or 3 divX movies of easily good enough quality to view on the PSP's screen. Its also enough for roughly about 15-20 albums in mp3 format. Couple that with the fact that its a removable media. I think its actually quite a decent and useful capacity - certainly not tiny - as you describe it.
Its always nice to read something with a touch of the warm fuzzies - But heres something to think about. There are obviously a lot of people who are fanatical about linux here on slashdot- I've been using Linux almost exclusively for several years now. Its heartening to see it grow and grow from year to year and there is increasing speculation that *this* year will be the year of linux on the desktop - I dont really want to discuss that here because thats such a non-quantifiable thing- it works for me - might not for someone else.
What id like to throw into the discussion mix here is this; Will linux and open source enevitably cause another tech boom? and do the philosophies and ethics behind what it is to be "Open Source" actually gather enough momentum to change fundamentally the face of computing? Has it happened already ? or are we just witnessing the tremors before the earthquake?
Nah... We're not doing marketing - surely we didnt jump at the chance to do a radio interview promoting ubuntu... not - us !
On the other hand I've tried ubuntu - I like it I've not really switched yet but Im certainly watching out for it as it seems to be quite a fast moving project.
I've always bought tins of whiskers for tiddles, should I switch to another brand - He's never been too keen on kit-e-cat. How will this affect my cat ?
but it's not really at the level where I could suggest replacing (for example) my parent's WinXP with a Linux distro and not expect to have to handle a bunch of phone calls about bugs.
My mum is running Vidalinux - (before that knoppix) on a PC I built and installed her for christmas. I set her up with a user account - and I have a root account for when software needs installing. It just works (tm), she cant break it and there are no pop-ups, viruses, nightmares for me to worry about. So far - other than the initial setting up she adores it and I get so much less headaches than i did when she used windows.
In addition, my dad uses Xandros Open Circulation which is simpler and more "windows like" for a less savvy user.
My parents are both retired and in my experience they couldnt care less about what OS is running just that it does what they want it to do- Linux does! - I care about tech support though and Id much rather be administering a linux box than a windows one - its just more pleasant, and of course once linux is up and running for the most part it stays that way and that means I do less tech support with Linux than I would with windows.
Maybe you should trial your parents with knoppix or something similar see how they get on - you might be surprised. And when you're confident about them getting along with it - take the plunge. I did eventually after umm,ing and ahh,ing about it and in the end it paid off!
Remember your parents will use linux very functionally. You and I are more than likely trying out all sorts of strange beta programs that do weird and wonderful things. Your folks in all likelihood are Surfing , Word processing and maybe other general such activities that Linux handles just as well. Big plus of course is - I've never seen so many free-cell, puzzle and tetris type games on any other platform so that's gotta be a bonus.
Of course if they are hard core fraggers and gamers then maybe you should stick with windows - or get them a console!.
Generally, I think they'll find that most people hold a similar view. OSS advocates often get so caught up in the ideas of modifiability and redistributability that they forget that for most people, it's a total non-issue.
So just because you dont understand or have the ability to modify code its a non-issue? How about the fact that it is modifiable and can be changed by someone who does understand and modify free software can do so? Your should care that software is freely modifiable because you will be the one benefitting when someone else more knowledgable comes along and makes the product better. What happens when the noddy proprietary software vendor goes belly up - bang goes your investment - but if their product was free open source, and the software was of any great merit you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be plenty of foss developers getting their hands dirty.
Just because you are unable to do theses things yourself it doesnt mean that you shouldnt care about it being important - you benefit from it all the time without even realising it.
Simply by saying that you probably dont realise quite how much influence free software is changing the world its not some small bunch of hippies with some ideal to legalise pot. If free software and those that extoll the virtues of it did not exist your world would probably be very different. Have you ever used google ? have you ever looked at a website running on linux/bsd/apache ? ever downloaded a bittorrent file? or ripped a dvd?
The chances are that you have - and all of these things were made possible to you by people excercising their right to create, use and modify free software.
Free software people dont "want" to change the world, they "are" changing the world - and the chances are my friend that you have benefitted from it in many many ways. And ask yourself this question... what about all those developing countries who are choosing Linux/FOSS are they and their people not going to benefit directly or indirectly from the fact that their goverments have less ties with redmond in america?
Actually you are wrong to think that people dont get paid to write free software. It shows on your part a lack of understanding of how the free software industry works, or maybe what the term free means in this case. Have you read the "four freedoms" link in the article ?
Free software is not about getting something for nothing - it is about your rights, and freedoms and ability to do whatever and use however free software in any way you see fit.
Consider the many companies that sell free software- eg - linux distributions such as Red Hat, Mandrake , SuSe, Novell . Do you think these companies leech the free software in order to create the various distro's they sell ? No... of course not.. while there may well be many projects they dont have involvement with and perhaps volunteer contributors to their product. They mostly have good teams of developers that "get paid" to work on free software and this in turn gets returned to the community so everyone benefits. While I could go on and find other examples such as IBM - ill leave the googling to you!
I think that you highlight the misconception that many people have - not just individuals but also businesses - that there aint any money in F/OSS. I think it is important to educate people such as yourself the virtues and dispell the myths that abound. In fact, in todays cut throat IT industry its either be Assimilated or die *cough*redmond*cough* free software and open source is rapidly becoming a form of protection for companies - companies like Novell for example - They couldnt have made a better businiess move than going down the freedom route. Think about this way;companies like Novell may well benefit from the Kernel-Hackers at Red-Hat - While the Red-Hat team may benefit from the Ximian develpers at Novell. To put this in perspective look at Microsoft well , its kind of hard to find an example here because the only business that benefit from microsoft is microsoft since they dont follow this ethic at all.
Admittedly those that are lucky enough to get paid to write free software are severly outweighed by those who write proprietary. But year after year those scales are tipping and I think its fair to say that linux and free software is a like a snowball rolling down a hill, it just keeps getting bigger and their insnt a lot that can be done to stop it. Its changing the way people think!
One of my lifetime career goals is to establish myself on some decent level or another as a well-rounded, (mostly) standards-based web designer with some backroom web development knowhow.
4-5 yrs down the line you will probably want to be doing something else less web related - most people want basically the same thing from their websites. And once you have built umteen sites for umpteen different client - you will find your self wondering what other interesting development jobs there are about. I'd advise getting some other more generic skills - C/C++ maybe something else but that can easily be leveraged when you decide websites are'nt challenging any more...
so... I suppose this begs the question... at this cheap price is it possible to use wholly or in part to create a funky little linux box ? has anyone figured out a way of attaching a hard drive to one yet?
People in glass houses should not throw stones - perhaps they should ask the question how to repair the loss in trust people have in IE before casting uncertainty about other browsers.
Here one very good reason why we can "trust" firefox over IE
We have the source code - and as such it gives confidence that the firefox team have no evil to hide - and that any software bugs can be repaired by anyone who cares.
Slashdot Mirror
I think this is only a problem if you are distributing binaries to others. As far as I know If you are using and developing things in house for your own use with GPL'd code then there is no requirement to release your modifications back into to the original source tree.
One of the suggestions is that the new GPL should address patent concerns. While one half of me thinks this should be addressed - the other half thinks that doing this might show an acceptance and recognition of software patents by this chunk of the Open Source community. This could be a dangerous thing to do.
possible way around this?
...
Suppose these schema's are GPL incompatible. Would it be possible for software such as Open Office to use the schema's but not include them as part of the distribution? for example- if i downloaded my favorite GPL'd office application -would It be possible to have some sort of wizard download the scheme from Microsoft and then plug-in to my chosen package? That way its technically not a part of the distribution...
Nick
One was to create a website which linked to "legal" mp3 files? Many bands and indie record labels offer free mp3 downloads on their sites eg http://www.toopure.com/ .... Once an MP3 file has been released for free how can it be illegal to share it?
...
Nick
In answer to your question is that the term Open Source in non-license specific - as you rightly suggest there are dozens of open source licenses in active use. Which is why i asked the question. And can these patented things be used in *Any* Open Source Project or just Open Source projects that are under the OCDL ?
Unless aformentioned camera's are forced upon photographers by law or something- Papparazzi will just avoid buying and using camera's with this technology. The problem is that it is reliant on the person taking the picture to have the magic circuit inside. And lets face it if you are going to be taking pictures of celbrities baring all - or whatever - you aint gonna pick a camera thats not going to do its job properly.
over 1,600 patents are being contributed to the open source community from the open solaris website. now the question remains when the refer to the "Open Source Community" are they referring to Open Source as in their CDDL licence - or Open Source Community as it is normally interpreted? Not that I support software patents at all though mind.
FYI and anyone else for that matter...
eXeem lite appears to work well under the latest Crossover Wine... Of course that doesnt negate the requirement for a less encumbered open source incarnation.
What's stopping someone from writing an entire environment like OS X from the ground up, around and on top of Linux, and creating an OS X like environment that is as complete and modern as either OS X or Windows?
...
Whats stopping them - nothing - i am sure there are , have been and will be efforts to do this. But there is one huge stumbling block- That is Apple could make it succeed because they control the hardware in addition to the software. They could have done the same with the Linux kernel. Microsoft have the x86 hardware wrapped up with their OEM's. To successfully pull off an feat like this would be an impressive thing. The trouble is that if it wasnt heavily gpl'd or contained too much proprietary stuff it would get poo-pooed by a lot of people.
look at this
http://www.rocklyte.com/athene/index.html
not sure if it uses X11 but its and interesting diversion from the norm at least...
UMDs are 2.4-inch optical discs in protective cases that have a data storage capacity of 1.8GB. :: (from the article)
...
Why
would anyone want to do that when it can play a TINY selections of
music and movies from a single company.
1.8gb ? Thats 2 or 3 divX movies of easily good enough quality to view on the PSP's screen. Its also enough for roughly about 15-20 albums in mp3 format. Couple that with the fact that its a removable media. I think its actually quite a decent and useful capacity - certainly not tiny - as you describe it.
Nick
Its always nice to read something with a touch of the warm fuzzies - But heres something to think about. There are obviously a lot of people who are fanatical about linux here on slashdot- I've been using Linux almost exclusively for several years now. Its heartening to see it grow and grow from year to year and there is increasing speculation that *this* year will be the year of linux on the desktop - I dont really want to discuss that here because thats such a non-quantifiable thing- it works for me - might not for someone else.
...
What id like to throw into the discussion mix here is this; Will linux and open source enevitably cause another tech boom? and do the philosophies and ethics behind what it is to be "Open Source" actually gather enough momentum to change fundamentally the face of computing? Has it happened already ? or are we just witnessing the tremors before the earthquake?
Nick
Nah ... We're not doing marketing - surely we didnt jump at the chance to do a radio interview promoting ubuntu... not - us !
...
On the other hand I've tried ubuntu - I like it I've not really switched yet but Im certainly watching out for it as it seems to be quite a fast moving project.
Nick
Not really because profit making competitors will be able to purchase licenses using the money they make from the products they sell.
Cynical but good point Id mod you up if had points.
I've always bought tins of whiskers for tiddles, should I switch to another brand - He's never been too keen on kit-e-cat. How will this affect my cat ?
...
Nick
I use F/OSS all day, every day for work,
...
Me too!
but it's not really at the level where I could suggest replacing (for example) my parent's WinXP with a Linux distro and not expect to have to handle a bunch of phone calls about bugs.
My mum is running Vidalinux - (before that knoppix) on a PC I built and installed her for christmas. I set her up with a user account - and I have a root account for when software needs installing. It just works (tm), she cant break it and there are no pop-ups, viruses, nightmares for me to worry about. So far - other than the initial setting up she adores it and I get so much less headaches than i did when she used windows.
In addition, my dad uses Xandros Open Circulation which is simpler and more "windows like" for a less savvy user.
My parents are both retired and in my experience they couldnt care less about what OS is running just that it does what they want it to do- Linux does! - I care about tech support though and Id much rather be administering a linux box than a windows one - its just more pleasant, and of course once linux is up and running for the most part it stays that way and that means I do less tech support with Linux than I would with windows.
Maybe you should trial your parents with knoppix or something similar see how they get on - you might be surprised. And when you're confident about them getting along with it - take the plunge. I did eventually after umm,ing and ahh,ing about it and in the end it paid off!
Remember your parents will use linux very functionally. You and I are more than likely trying out all sorts of strange beta programs that do weird and wonderful things. Your folks in all likelihood are Surfing , Word processing and maybe other general such activities that Linux handles just as well. Big plus of course is - I've never seen so many free-cell, puzzle and tetris type games on any other platform so that's gotta be a bonus.
Of course if they are hard core fraggers and gamers then maybe you should stick with windows - or get them a console!.
Nick
Generally, I think they'll find that most people hold a similar view. OSS advocates often get so caught up in the ideas of modifiability and redistributability that they forget that for most people, it's a total non-issue.
So just because you dont understand or have the ability to modify code its a non-issue? How about the fact that it is modifiable and can be changed by someone who does understand and modify free software can do so? Your should care that software is freely modifiable because you will be the one benefitting when someone else more knowledgable comes along and makes the product better. What happens when the noddy proprietary software vendor goes belly up - bang goes your investment - but if their product was free open source, and the software was of any great merit you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be plenty of foss developers getting their hands dirty.
Just because you are unable to do theses things yourself it doesnt mean that you shouldnt care about it being important - you benefit from it all the time without even realising it.
Im going to bite this troll...
... what about all those developing countries who are choosing Linux/FOSS are they and their people not going to benefit directly or indirectly from the fact that their goverments have less ties with redmond in america?
Simply by saying that you probably dont realise quite how much influence free software is changing the world its not some small bunch of hippies with some ideal to legalise pot. If free software and those that extoll the virtues of it did not exist your world would probably be very different. Have you ever used google ? have you ever looked at a website running on linux/bsd/apache ? ever downloaded a bittorrent file? or ripped a dvd?
The chances are that you have - and all of these things were made possible to you by people excercising their right to create, use and modify free software.
Free software people dont "want" to change the world, they "are" changing the world - and the chances are my friend that you have benefitted from it in many many ways. And ask yourself this question
Actually you are wrong to think that people dont get paid to write free software. It shows on your part a lack of understanding of how the free software industry works, or maybe what the term free means in this case. Have you read the "four freedoms" link in the article ?
... of course not .. while there may well be many projects they dont have involvement with and perhaps volunteer contributors to their product. They mostly have good teams of developers that "get paid" to work on free software and this in turn gets returned to the community so everyone benefits. While I could go on and find other examples such as IBM - ill leave the googling to you!
;companies like Novell may well benefit from the Kernel-Hackers at Red-Hat - While the Red-Hat team may benefit from the Ximian develpers at Novell. To put this in perspective look at Microsoft well , its kind of hard to find an example here because the only business that benefit from microsoft is microsoft since they dont follow this ethic at all.
Free software is not about getting something for nothing - it is about your rights, and freedoms and ability to do whatever and use however free software in any way you see fit.
Consider the many companies that sell free software- eg - linux distributions such as Red Hat, Mandrake , SuSe, Novell . Do you think these companies leech the free software in order to create the various distro's they sell ? No
I think that you highlight the misconception that many people have - not just individuals but also businesses - that there aint any money in F/OSS. I think it is important to educate people such as yourself the virtues and dispell the myths that abound. In fact, in todays cut throat IT industry its either be Assimilated or die *cough*redmond*cough* free software and open source is rapidly becoming a form of protection for companies - companies like Novell for example - They couldnt have made a better businiess move than going down the freedom route. Think about this way
Admittedly those that are lucky enough to get paid to write free software are severly outweighed by those who write proprietary. But year after year those scales are tipping and I think its fair to say that linux and free software is a like a snowball rolling down a hill, it just keeps getting bigger and their insnt a lot that can be done to stop it. Its changing the way people think!
One of my lifetime career goals is to establish myself on some decent level or another as a well-rounded, (mostly) standards-based web designer with some backroom web development knowhow.
4-5 yrs down the line you will probably want to be doing something else less web related - most people want basically the same thing from their websites. And once you have built umteen sites for umpteen different client - you will find your self wondering what other interesting development jobs there are about. I'd advise getting some other more generic skills - C/C++ maybe something else but that can easily be leveraged when you decide websites are'nt challenging any more...
so ... I suppose this begs the question ... at this cheap price is it possible to use wholly or in part to create a funky little linux box ? has anyone figured out a way of attaching a hard drive to one yet?
...
Nick
start off a new production line of SID chips ... now were talking !
People in glass houses should not throw stones - perhaps they should ask the question how to repair the loss in trust people have in IE before casting uncertainty about other browsers.
Here one very good reason why we can "trust" firefox over IE
We have the source code - and as such it gives confidence that the firefox team have no evil to hide - and that any software bugs can be repaired by anyone who cares.
that chick can hold my joystick any day if she wants.