As the current version of Debian is obviously not compatible with the new policy decisions, it is not as if releasing one more version with the same incompatibility will be such a big deal.
I agree that Debian should be as free as possible, but if what is currently released was all right a few years ago, then it will keep for another year or so.
Assuming, of course, that the next release comes out in about a year, which would be a GOOD THING. One major upgrade a year is fine. Once a month would be far too unstable, and even once every six months would be unnecessarily unstable for Debian, IMHO.
(I am not a Debian developer, but I do maintain about thirty Debian machines. My opinions are based on this.)
increasing the respectability of gaming might reduce the pleasure of the pastime
There's a simple answer to this: for the people who would be negatively affected by this, simply play less respectable games. Just like not all books printed are respectable, there is something for everyone.
Books have been lucky though. After the awful things that people have done to suppress thought (expressed in book form) books now enjoy a special place in our culture. To burn a book is seen as a very bad thing all over the Western world.
Computer games, in comparison, are relatively new, and don't have the stigma of free speech attached to them so much. Some would argue that they don't qualify as free speech at all. Perhaps enjoyably inappropriate games such as the Grand Theft Auto series might eventually allow games as a whole to enjoy the same protected status as books? Time will tell.
Incidentally, Timothy was totally correct in saying -40 degrees without specifying Celsius or Fahrenheit, because -40 degrees Celsius is the same temperature as -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Just in case you do actually believe their false advertising, Microsoft have actually done very little in the way of innovation - certainly when it comes to products they actually release. (In house, who knows?)
Most of their products are extensions of existing ones. They did not invent the computer, operating system, word processor, spreadsheet, mouse, BASIC, C++, Java or just about anything else people quote when "innovation" comes up.
It's called "embrace and extend". They take a protocol or product, add bits that are incompatible with everything else, and encourage people to use those bits. Then everything else seems to be broken when it is in fact just Microsoft not adhering to standards.
Another poster mentioned MOSIX, but openMosix is probably a better bet. It's released under the GPL, and is a combination of kernel-patch and user-space tools. Once you get these installed on each node, and connected via ethernet (all with networking set up of course... IP addresses etc) you should have yourself a cluster.
Debian uses the APT (Advanced Package Tool) system. The upshot of this is that to install xine with a user interface, you type apt-get install xine-ui
You can tell exactly what to type by searching for the program in your "apt cache". To find that, I typed apt-cache search xine
Usually, the command is exactly what you'd expect. For example, "nethack" is installed by typing apt-get install nethack
All dependencies are automatically resolved for you, and you can even install more than one program at a time, for example apt-get install nethack xine-ui
In my opinion, with this little amount of knowledge, the APT system is the easiest and most convenient install system I've ever come across. It allows you to install, say, 50 programs, all in one go, and removing them without trace is just as easy:
apt-get remove --purge xine-ui
or if you want to keep the configuration files:
apt-get remove xine-ui
apt-get is thoroughly documented, but really those are the only commands that most people should need. Help is just a man apt-get away, so there's really no problem there.
Oh one more thing, for a description of what a package is, use apt-cache show
I'm always astounded how people think they have the right to express their opinions and then act surprised when there are repercussions.
Perhaps because when things are happening that will affect the whole world, including themselves, they feel that they have just as much a right to speak freely as politicians.
Hmm, I don't see why it would need a different diff for every possible combination. Just a minimal "turn this on, turn this on, turn this on". If the thing was already turned on, it wouldn't matter. Perhaps diff would be the wrong program to use, but the idea would remain the same.
OK, how about this for an idea. With Linux, support for most devices is already built in, and either "just works" or needs a recompile. How about, then, a set of diffs for different devices that you can apply to your/boot/config file to enable support? This way, people won't have to look up the HOWTOs and edit the file manually, but either get the diff direct from the Linux-savvy manufacturer or go to an unoffical webpage (like this one) and get it from there?
So first you look up your device, then you apply the diff to your config file, then you recompile, then your device works.
Am I missing out on anything? This would be very handy, and significantly reduce possibilities for manual-editing-screwups.
Definitely CompactFlash for me, ever since I accidentally put one in the washing machine on hot and it not only survived but didn't seem to be damaged in any way.
It's small enough to fit into cameras and the like, yet big enough to be a "sensible size". It's only common sense that a slightly larger form factor will (in the future) allow greater storage than the smaller ones, at a lower price, with higher reliability.
Furthermore, it doesn't seem to be as bogged down with patents as the other formats, different companies can make CompactFlash cards, while things like the Sony Memory Stick are made by... well... Sony.
Oh, and lastly, unlike Secure-Digital and another one which I've temporarily forgotten the name of - it has no built-in Digital Rights Management - at least not that I've come across. I avoid anything to do with DRM on principle, even if I'm missing out by doing so.
I agree with your fears, but even your best-case scenario sounds like a pain for perhaps 70% of computer users.
The risks far outweigh the benefits from a company that has shown itself repeatedly to be untrustworthy.
The comment about preventing employees installing software is misleading. NTFS and Unix permissions can prevent this (though it's tricky to get the balance on NTFS if people actually have to use the computer for more than a few specific tasks. I have been called out several times to fix people's new XP systems that will only run programs as the Administrator. Ironically enough, Microsoft games seem to be the worst offenders.
Regarding emailing out confidential information - that's a total red herring. If people have the ability to send email without physical human monitoring, the best you can have is a keyword search. Palladium would do nothing to prevent people leaking information, unless it was by preventing them installing an email client (which again is something that can be handled by permissions.)
First off, the opinion of one "critic" is not enough to base your entire argument on. That's an "appeal to authority," and is a fallacy.
I fail to see how work being in the public domain could reduce the amount of work created. It is common sense that if a scriptwriter can derivate from a public domain work without having to pay royalties, he is more likely to do so then if he has to pay.
Your comparison of nerve gas and copying a snippet from a DVD is alarmist, misleading and over the top. Do you genuinely think it would be in the public interest to prevent people copying from a DVD? The proposed suggestion would make it illegal to even quote from a book. How would you feel if one of your books sunk into obscurity because it was illegal to read it?
Lastly, it has been argued that no work is truly original. This is definitely the case for a large quantity of Disney's work, which legally makes use of the public domain to create derivative works. By your logic, Disney should be prevented from doing this, because the work was "created" by someone else. Thinking of it like this, it would very quickly lead to nothing being able to be produced without payment of license fees.
This would not help creativity in the slightest. The only sensible way of thinking of it is to imagine everything belonging to the public domain by default, and copyrights temporarily carving out a piece until it is returned to the public domain. Everyone benefits, people are still free to put what they have created, sub-created, discovered or derived back into the public domain, and people don't go to prison for making backups.
kids today need to learn to think for themselves BEFORE they begin to use technology as a crutch
Why?
Calculators are everywhere. They come in keyrings, phones, PDAs, watches, computers, even rulers and filofaxes. If you could do the test and get the correct answers, then clearly you knew how to work them out.
The attitude of people like your professor irks me considerably. Some intelligent people will never be able to do difficult calculations in their head. Would you ask a builder not to dig the foundations with tools, or should he use his bare hands?
I can't help but feel that he has totally missed the point. JRR Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, and Christianity was a very important influence on his philosophy. Good, evil, and humans living up to their ability or failing at the test is very relevant in terms of religion.
He seems to be attacking the form rather than the underlying messages, and as has already been mentioned, it's a fairy story. There's just so many ways of looking at Tolkien's work that some of Brin's essay seems just petty. "The paramount importance... of the indomitable Romantic hero"? He's just got no idea. Tell me who the hero of the Lord of the Rings is? I think Sam is as much the hero as anyone, and who would put him as their first choice?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. What about if someone threw themselves in front of a car to save a little child? It would not do any of what you say, except perhaps get them in the local newspaper for a day, which they would not even know about.
Sometimes people just do things because they think it's the right thing to to.
If we can never truly perceive a thing in itself by sensing it, then why would perceiving it through text, maths and theory be any harder? Wouldn't it be easier since there is only pure logic to get your head around?
Why should we just sit down and be quiet about it? Everything I said is true, and if it sounds a bit fantastic, then that's what we're dealing with.
I was always prepared to just think of it in terms purely of convenience. Now, I cannot any longer. With the internet and widespread access to computers, we are on the brink of something wonderful. Instead, I see people trying their hardest to make it illegal, crippled, or both.
One of the worst of these is Microsoft. I can't in good conscience pay money to those behind Palladium.
I think that if people like us, who have some idea what's going on, do nothing, or support it, we will regret it badly in the years to come.
I earnestly believe what I have written as well, and if it offends the "non-geek, non-Linux, non-computer-using public" then perhaps it's time they got offended, because I don't see anyone addressing the issues, and they badly need to be addressed.
Do you care nothing about freedom? Has it not occurred to you that if you are using XP legally, you have given Microsoft permission to change what they like on your computer?
Do you LIKE the idea that you are supporting extremely powerful criminals who want to control you? Even worse, supporting them over those who would offer you choice, for nothing in return?
Even if you are right, things change. Linux is usable, fast and reliable NOW. The more people using it, the more support it will get.
Linux is getting better and better, and even if Windows is too, there can be no doubt that Microsoft, the company, is getting worse and worse. Why support them?
With all due respect, anyone commiting breaches of human rights has more to worry about legally than conditions in software licenses. Such breaches are illegal already, this license adds nothing new.
Slashdot Mirror
This is fantastic news, absolutely fantastic.
As the current version of Debian is obviously not compatible with the new policy decisions, it is not as if releasing one more version with the same incompatibility will be such a big deal.
I agree that Debian should be as free as possible, but if what is currently released was all right a few years ago, then it will keep for another year or so.
Assuming, of course, that the next release comes out in about a year, which would be a GOOD THING. One major upgrade a year is fine. Once a month would be far too unstable, and even once every six months would be unnecessarily unstable for Debian, IMHO.
(I am not a Debian developer, but I do maintain about thirty Debian machines. My opinions are based on this.)
Problem is, it's not necessarily even true.
They might suffer from some sort of post-viral illness, they might be in shock, they might be depressed, or one of many other reasons.
I find the advice about taking pep pills to be particularly poor, when one considers these other reasons for fatigue.
That's just not true!
The meter is the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.
Source
THE GPL!
increasing the respectability of gaming might reduce the pleasure of the pastime
There's a simple answer to this: for the people who would be negatively affected by this, simply play less respectable games. Just like not all books printed are respectable, there is something for everyone.
Books have been lucky though. After the awful things that people have done to suppress thought (expressed in book form) books now enjoy a special place in our culture. To burn a book is seen as a very bad thing all over the Western world.
Computer games, in comparison, are relatively new, and don't have the stigma of free speech attached to them so much. Some would argue that they don't qualify as free speech at all. Perhaps enjoyably inappropriate games such as the Grand Theft Auto series might eventually allow games as a whole to enjoy the same protected status as books? Time will tell.
Incidentally, Timothy was totally correct in saying -40 degrees without specifying Celsius or Fahrenheit, because -40 degrees Celsius is the same temperature as -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Just in case you do actually believe their false advertising, Microsoft have actually done very little in the way of innovation - certainly when it comes to products they actually release. (In house, who knows?)
Most of their products are extensions of existing ones. They did not invent the computer, operating system, word processor, spreadsheet, mouse, BASIC, C++, Java or just about anything else people quote when "innovation" comes up.
It's called "embrace and extend". They take a protocol or product, add bits that are incompatible with everything else, and encourage people to use those bits. Then everything else seems to be broken when it is in fact just Microsoft not adhering to standards.
a mountain of radioactive and toxic dirt 2,000 times larger than Egypt's Great Pyramid at Giza.
That's all very well and good, but I want to know how many Libraries of Congress that is.
Another poster mentioned MOSIX, but openMosix is probably a better bet. It's released under the GPL, and is a combination of kernel-patch and user-space tools. Once you get these installed on each node, and connected via ethernet (all with networking set up of course... IP addresses etc) you should have yourself a cluster.
An explanation (we all have to start somewhere):
Debian uses the APT (Advanced Package Tool) system. The upshot of this is that to install xine with a user interface, you type apt-get install xine-ui
You can tell exactly what to type by searching for the program in your "apt cache". To find that, I typed apt-cache search xine
Usually, the command is exactly what you'd expect. For example, "nethack" is installed by typing apt-get install nethack
All dependencies are automatically resolved for you, and you can even install more than one program at a time, for example apt-get install nethack xine-ui
In my opinion, with this little amount of knowledge, the APT system is the easiest and most convenient install system I've ever come across. It allows you to install, say, 50 programs, all in one go, and removing them without trace is just as easy:
apt-get remove --purge xine-ui
or if you want to keep the configuration files:
apt-get remove xine-ui
apt-get is thoroughly documented, but really those are the only commands that most people should need. Help is just a man apt-get away, so there's really no problem there.
Oh one more thing, for a description of what a package is, use apt-cache show
For example:
apt-cache show xine-ui tells you all about xine.
I'm always astounded how people think they have the right to express their opinions and then act surprised when there are repercussions.
Perhaps because when things are happening that will affect the whole world, including themselves, they feel that they have just as much a right to speak freely as politicians.
Hmm, I don't see why it would need a different diff for every possible combination. Just a minimal "turn this on, turn this on, turn this on". If the thing was already turned on, it wouldn't matter. Perhaps diff would be the wrong program to use, but the idea would remain the same.
OK, how about this for an idea. With Linux, support for most devices is already built in, and either "just works" or needs a recompile. How about, then, a set of diffs for different devices that you can apply to your /boot/config file to enable support? This way, people won't have to look up the HOWTOs and edit the file manually, but either get the diff direct from the Linux-savvy manufacturer or go to an unoffical webpage (like this one) and get it from there?
So first you look up your device, then you apply the diff to your config file, then you recompile, then your device works.
Am I missing out on anything? This would be very handy, and significantly reduce possibilities for manual-editing-screwups.
Definitely CompactFlash for me, ever since I accidentally put one in the washing machine on hot and it not only survived but didn't seem to be damaged in any way.
It's small enough to fit into cameras and the like, yet big enough to be a "sensible size". It's only common sense that a slightly larger form factor will (in the future) allow greater storage than the smaller ones, at a lower price, with higher reliability.
Furthermore, it doesn't seem to be as bogged down with patents as the other formats, different companies can make CompactFlash cards, while things like the Sony Memory Stick are made by... well... Sony.
Oh, and lastly, unlike Secure-Digital and another one which I've temporarily forgotten the name of - it has no built-in Digital Rights Management - at least not that I've come across. I avoid anything to do with DRM on principle, even if I'm missing out by doing so.
I agree with your fears, but even your best-case scenario sounds like a pain for perhaps 70% of computer users.
The risks far outweigh the benefits from a company that has shown itself repeatedly to be untrustworthy.
The comment about preventing employees installing software is misleading. NTFS and Unix permissions can prevent this (though it's tricky to get the balance on NTFS if people actually have to use the computer for more than a few specific tasks. I have been called out several times to fix people's new XP systems that will only run programs as the Administrator. Ironically enough, Microsoft games seem to be the worst offenders.
Regarding emailing out confidential information - that's a total red herring. If people have the ability to send email without physical human monitoring, the best you can have is a keyword search. Palladium would do nothing to prevent people leaking information, unless it was by preventing them installing an email client (which again is something that can be handled by permissions.)
Putin your
Note: this also works withor
First off, the opinion of one "critic" is not enough to base your entire argument on. That's an "appeal to authority," and is a fallacy.
I fail to see how work being in the public domain could reduce the amount of work created. It is common sense that if a scriptwriter can derivate from a public domain work without having to pay royalties, he is more likely to do so then if he has to pay.
Your comparison of nerve gas and copying a snippet from a DVD is alarmist, misleading and over the top. Do you genuinely think it would be in the public interest to prevent people copying from a DVD? The proposed suggestion would make it illegal to even quote from a book. How would you feel if one of your books sunk into obscurity because it was illegal to read it?
Lastly, it has been argued that no work is truly original. This is definitely the case for a large quantity of Disney's work, which legally makes use of the public domain to create derivative works. By your logic, Disney should be prevented from doing this, because the work was "created" by someone else. Thinking of it like this, it would very quickly lead to nothing being able to be produced without payment of license fees.
This would not help creativity in the slightest. The only sensible way of thinking of it is to imagine everything belonging to the public domain by default, and copyrights temporarily carving out a piece until it is returned to the public domain. Everyone benefits, people are still free to put what they have created, sub-created, discovered or derived back into the public domain, and people don't go to prison for making backups.
Much fairer.
kids today need to learn to think for themselves BEFORE they begin to use technology as a crutch
Why?
Calculators are everywhere. They come in keyrings, phones, PDAs, watches, computers, even rulers and filofaxes. If you could do the test and get the correct answers, then clearly you knew how to work them out.
The attitude of people like your professor irks me considerably. Some intelligent people will never be able to do difficult calculations in their head. Would you ask a builder not to dig the foundations with tools, or should he use his bare hands?
I can't help but feel that he has totally missed the point. JRR Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, and Christianity was a very important influence on his philosophy. Good, evil, and humans living up to their ability or failing at the test is very relevant in terms of religion.
... of the indomitable Romantic hero"? He's just got no idea. Tell me who the hero of the Lord of the Rings is? I think Sam is as much the hero as anyone, and who would put him as their first choice?
He seems to be attacking the form rather than the underlying messages, and as has already been mentioned, it's a fairy story. There's just so many ways of looking at Tolkien's work that some of Brin's essay seems just petty. "The paramount importance
Every human act is selfish.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. What about if someone threw themselves in front of a car to save a little child? It would not do any of what you say, except perhaps get them in the local newspaper for a day, which they would not even know about.
Sometimes people just do things because they think it's the right thing to to.
If we can never truly perceive a thing in itself by sensing it, then why would perceiving it through text, maths and theory be any harder? Wouldn't it be easier since there is only pure logic to get your head around?
Have I misunderstood something, or is Adobe admitting to downloading 100,000 ebooks?
They are not the police, and do not have the right to break the law just to prove (or in this case disprove) their point.
You have not been trolled, at least not by me.
Why should we just sit down and be quiet about it? Everything I said is true, and if it sounds a bit fantastic, then that's what we're dealing with.
I was always prepared to just think of it in terms purely of convenience. Now, I cannot any longer. With the internet and widespread access to computers, we are on the brink of something wonderful. Instead, I see people trying their hardest to make it illegal, crippled, or both.
One of the worst of these is Microsoft. I can't in good conscience pay money to those behind Palladium.
I think that if people like us, who have some idea what's going on, do nothing, or support it, we will regret it badly in the years to come.
I earnestly believe what I have written as well, and if it offends the "non-geek, non-Linux, non-computer-using public" then perhaps it's time they got offended, because I don't see anyone addressing the issues, and they badly need to be addressed.
Am I wrong on this?
Do you care nothing about freedom? Has it not occurred to you that if you are using XP legally, you have given Microsoft permission to change what they like on your computer?
Do you LIKE the idea that you are supporting extremely powerful criminals who want to control you? Even worse, supporting them over those who would offer you choice, for nothing in return?
Even if you are right, things change. Linux is usable, fast and reliable NOW. The more people using it, the more support it will get.
Linux is getting better and better, and even if Windows is too, there can be no doubt that Microsoft, the company, is getting worse and worse. Why support them?
With all due respect, anyone commiting breaches of human rights has more to worry about legally than conditions in software licenses. Such breaches are illegal already, this license adds nothing new.