Yeah, OK. My analogy of software as a consumable was poor. Clearly it is not. But your argument that software should be free because it requires no "additional earthly materials" makes no sense. Software is not written spontaneously. Someone has to write it, which takes time and effort, and that someone should be compensated for his time and effort, assuming that someone else finds his work valuable and is willing to pay for it.
I have nothing against "free" software (as in beer or otherwise), nor do I think closed, commercial softare is evil. If someone wants to develop software for free for the greater good of mankind, I say go for it.
"I don't like being forced to pay out the nose for software that should be free", such as the operating system, without which your hardware is essentially useless. When you buy hardware, it does nothing until you've "bought" software to make it run.
Gee, isn't that like saying gas should be free since my SUV is useless without it? Or the electricity to make my computer run? Or nails for my hammer?
This has got to be the worst arguament I've ever seen for "free" software...
I haven't look at Novell in quite a while and this morning I noticed that they have a free download of SUSE "desktop Linux" available on their site. So, I thought I'd grab a copy since it says "No registration or key is required". The actual download page, however, says:
"Registration is required for the free download of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal. You will also be asked to complete a very brief survey."
No thanks, Novell. I think I'll grab my copy here.
Simple, malicious hacker uploads infected image of item to sell to auction site, that happens to be running Linux, (or Windows, or a Mac). IE user views auction item and gets infected. The point is the server is just a carrier, the IE user's PC is the one that actually gets sick.
There's apparently a newly discovered exploit in IE that can compromise an IE user's machine THROUGH AN IMAGE ON A WEB PAGE.
So any server that allows posting of graphics (eBay, many discussion forums, etc) can be "infected". Even those running Linux. The only solution is to stop using IE and pray that Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc. exploits are few and far between.
Article on graphics exploit here.
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we, in the west, put migets on horses
Actually, the politically correct term is "little people", you insensitive clod...
Well, I think we agree. Amen, brother...
Yeah, OK. My analogy of software as a consumable was poor. Clearly it is not. But your argument that software should be free because it requires no "additional earthly materials" makes no sense. Software is not written spontaneously. Someone has to write it, which takes time and effort, and that someone should be compensated for his time and effort, assuming that someone else finds his work valuable and is willing to pay for it.
I have nothing against "free" software (as in beer or otherwise), nor do I think closed, commercial softare is evil. If someone wants to develop software for free for the greater good of mankind, I say go for it.
"I don't like being forced to pay out the nose for software that should be free", such as the operating system, without which your hardware is essentially useless. When you buy hardware, it does nothing until you've "bought" software to make it run.
Gee, isn't that like saying gas should be free since my SUV is useless without it? Or the electricity to make my computer run? Or nails for my hammer?
This has got to be the worst arguament I've ever seen for "free" software...
Been there. Done that.
:)
Once upon a time (about 10 years ago), I was a CNE and I can still remember the stacks and stacks of floppies required to install Netware.
Ah, the good old days. Not.
I haven't look at Novell in quite a while and this morning I noticed that they have a free download of SUSE "desktop Linux" available on their site. So, I thought I'd grab a copy since it says "No registration or key is required". The actual download page, however, says:
"Registration is required for the free download of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal. You will also be asked to complete a very brief survey."
No thanks, Novell. I think I'll grab my copy here.
Simple, malicious hacker uploads infected image of item to sell to auction site, that happens to be running Linux, (or Windows, or a Mac). IE user views auction item and gets infected. The point is the server is just a carrier, the IE user's PC is the one that actually gets sick.
Um, no - what I said was SERVERS running Linux can host an infected image (which can be picked up by a visitor running IE).
That was in response to all those talking about patching IIS servers. And I'm not so sure it is the same exploit...
There's apparently a newly discovered exploit in IE that can compromise an IE user's machine THROUGH AN IMAGE ON A WEB PAGE.
So any server that allows posting of graphics (eBay, many discussion forums, etc) can be "infected". Even those running Linux. The only solution is to stop using IE and pray that Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc. exploits are few and far between. Article on graphics exploit here.