Yes, Stallman doesn't NEED the corps, or Torvalds, etc.
However, without them, development will slow down dramatically.
Programming in your free time is great. But people also need to eat, and have a roof over their heads, pay for the electrcity the computer eats...you know.
While some groups and public support can keep these people in pizza and Jolt, the support just isn't there to do it for everyone.
And while, even with corporate money, you still can't do it for everyone, you DO have a larger pool of capital to subsizide efforts.
Will the stuff get written?
Eventually.
The extra money means that "eventually" happens sometime in the foreseeable future.
Seriously. Look at HURD. How long did it take to go from "We're gonna do this" them actually shoving semi-usable versions out the door to the public? Half a decade or more to get to the 0.0 release? And how much has it developed since? (We're still sitting on 0.2 released as of 1997. WOO what development!)
We already see enough of this flash-in-the-pan development model elsewhere.
I'd rather see a product out there and developing with corporate subsidy than languishing in non-development because nobody has the time to work on it properly.
I like Richard Stallman. The man deserves shitloads of credit. But at times he's just way to far out there. What he misses in his "free as in freedom" is the freedom to choose to be bound by the limits of proprietary software if the need or desire arises.
I, for one, am familiar with the concept of "dress for success".
There's a dress code at my company. It's fairly easily followed, but it's still a dress code.
And there are considerations when going out to customer sites. Some, we could show up in a pair of shorts and a wife-beater for all they care. Others, if we're not in a suit and tie, they look at us funny.
Even so, this argument is an especially large patty of bullshit.
If you're reviewing software, review the damn software. Stop worrying what Joe Slack down the road happens to be wearing while using the self-same software.
Competent managers understand this. And they're usually dealing with (well dressed even) technical staff who do as well.
All the idiots who can't actually grasp the significance of the technology are covering themselves by going "OMG! IT'S WRITTEN BY A DIRTY, TREE-HUGGIN' HIPPIE! RUN AWAY!"
These individuals will, eventually, be replaced by more dynamic individuals who aren't so concerned with what some community programmer in Bumblefuck, KY is wearing.
Okay, this is a tracker site. It's going to be harder to justify pulling the whole site down because of the torrents it tracks.
However, if the companies are determined enough, they'll get the site yanked.
First they go to the tracker site itself. Then they go to their provider. Then they go to the provider upstream. And up, and up the chain until they reach someone who WILL yank the plug.
Granted, if they proceed above a multi-homed provider, they have to go to an increasing number of upstream providers. At which point, it becomes a MASSIVE hassle. But, as I said, it all depends on how determined they are to down a site.
Not that I'd know anything about downing a site in this fashion....
But the time and money involved in the switch would probably be painful.
Moreover, instead of focusing on their business, they'd be focusing on switching.
This would be a pain in the balls for large corporations. But it could put smaller companies right out of business. Or leave them hanging with no support.
From reading the article, it looks like there wasn't anything resembling an investigation under way. Merely a guy who was leaving the company to pursue another job (albeit a competitive one). He returned the laptop, as he pretty much was required to do.
THEN they went looking for dirt on him.
That order right there is what's important. If the guy had been informed of an investigation, and had then returned the laptop, wiped, he could be guilty of destroying evidence.
But he returned the laptop, then an investigation was begun.
Sorry, no investigation first, no crime.
Granted, this COULD be an internal policy issue for the company too. However, they're not suing him for violating company policy. They're suing him under "hacking" charges. Which pretty much says that there was no policy in place regarding the data on the laptop. Moreover, the guy's employment contract, apparently, SPECIFICALLY allowed him the option of destroying data on the machine.
In agreeing to that, the company pretty much just abrogated ownership of the data.
This guy's in for a really long court battle. But, eventually, he's going to be acquitted.
If the company had a set of policies in place, and had informed the employees about them, that ALL data that was put onto the system became the property of the company. Or if there was a clause on there about not putting personal data or programs on there.
In this case, they would pretty much need to PROVE that anything he deleted was possibly incriminating. Which, at this point, would be damn near impossible.
One of my clients had MASSIVE issues with it gobbling all available memory and swap. Seriously. 2.8Ghz P4 systems with 512MB of RAM running like slideshows.
Here's a screenie of the process monitor from one of those machines. Notice the Commit Charge. 1.9GB at the moment. Max was 2.4GB. And what's eating the most memory?
rtvscan (Symantec Antivirus) with 871MB (at the moment). It was actually giving memory back, so it wasn't a stupid little issue of a memory leak...
Not to mention the fact that the Power6 is a super-long pipeline chip that's meant to be run in multi-core arrays. And, as such, would probably be completely unsuitable for application in desktop computing. Think about sticking a 3.6Ghz P4 into a thin and light laptop....
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, Stallman doesn't NEED the corps, or Torvalds, etc.
However, without them, development will slow down dramatically.
Programming in your free time is great. But people also need to eat, and have a roof over their heads, pay for the electrcity the computer eats...you know.
While some groups and public support can keep these people in pizza and Jolt, the support just isn't there to do it for everyone.
And while, even with corporate money, you still can't do it for everyone, you DO have a larger pool of capital to subsizide efforts.
Will the stuff get written?
Eventually.
The extra money means that "eventually" happens sometime in the foreseeable future.
Seriously. Look at HURD. How long did it take to go from "We're gonna do this" them actually shoving semi-usable versions out the door to the public? Half a decade or more to get to the 0.0 release? And how much has it developed since? (We're still sitting on 0.2 released as of 1997. WOO what development!)
We already see enough of this flash-in-the-pan development model elsewhere.
I'd rather see a product out there and developing with corporate subsidy than languishing in non-development because nobody has the time to work on it properly.
I like Richard Stallman. The man deserves shitloads of credit. But at times he's just way to far out there. What he misses in his "free as in freedom" is the freedom to choose to be bound by the limits of proprietary software if the need or desire arises.
*WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!*
Not so active now. Are ya' sunshine?
*KABLAM!*
I, for one, am familiar with the concept of "dress for success".
There's a dress code at my company. It's fairly easily followed, but it's still a dress code.
And there are considerations when going out to customer sites. Some, we could show up in a pair of shorts and a wife-beater for all they care. Others, if we're not in a suit and tie, they look at us funny.
Even so, this argument is an especially large patty of bullshit.
If you're reviewing software, review the damn software. Stop worrying what Joe Slack down the road happens to be wearing while using the self-same software.
Competent managers understand this. And they're usually dealing with (well dressed even) technical staff who do as well.
All the idiots who can't actually grasp the significance of the technology are covering themselves by going "OMG! IT'S WRITTEN BY A DIRTY, TREE-HUGGIN' HIPPIE! RUN AWAY!"
These individuals will, eventually, be replaced by more dynamic individuals who aren't so concerned with what some community programmer in Bumblefuck, KY is wearing.
J00 h4x0r3d my b0x0rz!
I g0nna 5U3 J00!
I b c0mput3r literit! I k3n d0 it!
God. People this stupid and obtuse (fewer problems with people who're more friendly in their stupidity) make me want to go out on a shooting spree.
If I'd been Johnny, I'd have told the guy to go fuck himself after about the first threat and then blackholed his e-mail address.
Actually no.
Court costs can, and do, include attorney fees.
I recently sued someone here in Illinois.
I retained the service of a lawyer.
I won the case.
The judge ordered the defendant to pay court costs.
That included my legal fees.
You can argue with the payment I received from said defendent if you want. My lawyer sure isn't.
Apologies to C.S. Lewis.
Okay, this is a tracker site. It's going to be harder to justify pulling the whole site down because of the torrents it tracks.
However, if the companies are determined enough, they'll get the site yanked.
First they go to the tracker site itself.
Then they go to their provider.
Then they go to the provider upstream.
And up, and up the chain until they reach someone who WILL yank the plug.
Granted, if they proceed above a multi-homed provider, they have to go to an increasing number of upstream providers. At which point, it becomes a MASSIVE hassle. But, as I said, it all depends on how determined they are to down a site.
Not that I'd know anything about downing a site in this fashion....
Yes, they would probably switch.
But the time and money involved in the switch would probably be painful.
Moreover, instead of focusing on their business, they'd be focusing on switching.
This would be a pain in the balls for large corporations. But it could put smaller companies right out of business. Or leave them hanging with no support.
Yes, but when was the moment he became an ex-employee? When he decided to go into business himself? Or when he returned the laptop?
Also, if employee agreements bind the employee, even after termination of employement, they bind the employer as well.
Was there a legal investigation going on when the employee returned the laptop?
No.
He quit and returned the item.
THEN they began digging for dirt.
That makes all the difference in the world.
From reading the article, it looks like there wasn't anything resembling an investigation under way. Merely a guy who was leaving the company to pursue another job (albeit a competitive one). He returned the laptop, as he pretty much was required to do.
THEN they went looking for dirt on him.
That order right there is what's important. If the guy had been informed of an investigation, and had then returned the laptop, wiped, he could be guilty of destroying evidence.
But he returned the laptop, then an investigation was begun.
Sorry, no investigation first, no crime.
Granted, this COULD be an internal policy issue for the company too. However, they're not suing him for violating company policy. They're suing him under "hacking" charges. Which pretty much says that there was no policy in place regarding the data on the laptop. Moreover, the guy's employment contract, apparently, SPECIFICALLY allowed him the option of destroying data on the machine.
In agreeing to that, the company pretty much just abrogated ownership of the data.
This guy's in for a really long court battle. But, eventually, he's going to be acquitted.
Yes and no.
If the company had a set of policies in place, and had informed the employees about them, that ALL data that was put onto the system became the property of the company. Or if there was a clause on there about not putting personal data or programs on there.
In this case, they would pretty much need to PROVE that anything he deleted was possibly incriminating. Which, at this point, would be damn near impossible.
I dunno. I would think a massive, pipe-clogging bandwidth spike, which resulted in the removal of said site, would qualify as a successful attack.
I guess it all just depends on exactly what you want to do.
Just like this guy and his snarky opinions are now getting his site lots of traffic.
Ah. A young one.
It used to be that nobody actually owned their telephone hardware.
You used to pay a monthly equipment rental fee (like Cable) for your phone.
I for one welcome our "Old Is New Again" phone overlords.
When do I sign up for actually renting my telephone again?
*sigh*
DIFFERENT GUI. Not necessarily "better".
Like KDE vs Gnome. It's all about personal preference.
Sometimes it does.
One of my clients had MASSIVE issues with it gobbling all available memory and swap. Seriously. 2.8Ghz P4 systems with 512MB of RAM running like slideshows.
http://charles.borner.us/Pegged.JPG
Here's a screenie of the process monitor from one of those machines. Notice the Commit Charge. 1.9GB at the moment. Max was 2.4GB. And what's eating the most memory?
rtvscan (Symantec Antivirus) with 871MB (at the moment). It was actually giving memory back, so it wasn't a stupid little issue of a memory leak...
Not to mention the fact that the Power6 is a super-long pipeline chip that's meant to be run in multi-core arrays. And, as such, would probably be completely unsuitable for application in desktop computing. Think about sticking a 3.6Ghz P4 into a thin and light laptop....
This is more along the lines of post-mortem muscle contractions.
I'm sure that SOMEONE out there is willing to pour money down the toilet for this platform. And they'll make HP/Intel very very happy.
Then again, there's people who're into snorting drain cleaner too...
The "rip out the battery and let it disspate" doesn't work.
Because the settings are being written to a segment of RAM that holds settings even when no power is applied.
They're using the Microsoft countdown timer.
...oh you get the idea!
You have 30 years to go...
You have 31 years to go...
You have 45 years to go...
You
There is only "kill" with ever-increasing levels of assurance.
My! What DO they teach you young Scientologists these days?
n/t
Not really.
Such an installation would likely NEVER recoup the installation cost in power generated.