You make it sound like once you slap the GPL on some code, it automatically becomes attractive enough to "steal" to closed source development groups. Sorry, that just isn't true. Taking a look at Freshmeat alone seems to suggest that most companies would want to stay far, far away from most GPL'd code not for it's license but because of the quality;)
Hardly. More and more people TiVo purchasers (DirecTV has been pushing their combined boxes hard for a while now) are NOT technically-oriented users, i.e., 99% of America's consumers. The other 1% (Slashbots, geeks, whatever you choose to call them) will not make a sizable dent in TiVo's revenue stream, I'd wager.
But NAT hasn't solved any "IP shortage" problem, either. It has merely postponed the inevitable and at the same time completely broken the end-to-end nature of the Internet. Think of how many applications are broken and require twisted special cases to be handled by a NAT gateway..
Your handwriting must be HORRIBLE, or perhaps you aren't writing in the Roman alphabet. My 2100 is *fine* for both printing and cursive, and works equally well for anyone else I know with a Newton. As for a keyboard, did you never see the Newton's expansion keyboard? Please research the facts before you blindly attack anything with the Apple logo. I realize that this is a very popular pasttime on Slashdot, but try to stand out from the crowd.
Wow, classic, go ahead and make this a "white" against "non-white" issue. Brilliant. Is it your belief thta non-white people cannot be wealthy or do not possess Internet access?
Oh man. The moon is slightly less than 250,000 miles away, yes, IN A STRAIGHT LINE. Do you think the Apollo spacecraft traveled in a straight line to reach the moon? Are you aware of how any space travel occurs?
The sad thing is, this posting was probably a troll and therefore I just got trolled, but the temptation to let this tidbit of false information slip by was too great.:)
NIMBY shortsightedness? New Hampshire and probably even Vermont (think of all the cows in Vermont too!) have a higher population density than Nevada on average, no to mention the fact that you would have to deal with the relatively large population of Massachusetts that would feel uncomfortably close to such a disposal facility.
My code has no more "choice" as to where it wants to go anymore than my desk or fan or telephone has a choice. Please stop assigning human attributes to something like source code. If the whole basis of existance for the GPL is as you say, to give the code the ability "to distribute itself to wherever the code wants to go", then that's pretty sad. I'd prefer to think that it stands on more solid, sensible grounds.
Why do you blindly assume he's using Linux? Maybe he's using FreeBSD (BSD license), Apache (Apache license, similar to BSD), XFre86 (XFree86 license, derived from the X11/MIT license), among THOUSANDS of other tools that are NOT licensed under the GPL. Linux is not the end all and be all. There is a great big wide world out there outside of the tiny space Linux and the GPL occupy.
Your food analogy is flawed. Nowhere on food products at home do I see *how* to prepare those foods. There are no proportions, or cooking instructions. You could spend years on a complicated piece of food trying to "reverse engineer" it. Source code for a program is basically like a fully documented recipe.
What sense does this make? Apple is hardware company and margins on PC hardware are currently nearly paper-thin. They won't make money by selling (or giving away) their software on for Intel.
The same as MiniDisc, with over 15 vendors of that technology? I wouldn't call that getting "sucked into one vendor". Please check your facts before posting. Sony has licensed MemoryStick technology to several other companies.
No, it would be an indirect endorsement of the open source method. Open source development does not equate to Linux; or would you have us believe that XFree86 and Apache are merely Linux projects?
Re:BSD More mature in inverse maturity level of bi
on
FreeBSD 4.0 Released
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· Score: 1
Umm.. for quite a while, before Linux if you consider the INRIA and KAME (integrated in 4.0) patches provided IPv6 connectivity since at least FreeBSD 2.2.8 (released Dec 1998). Try doing a little more research before you spout off.
Small point, but important.. Apache does not imply Linux. Apache will run under quite a few operating systems, including oddballs like NT and OS/2, even a Siemens mainframe.
Linux may "run" on a lot of hardware platforms, but there are huge gaps still there, and it would have a tough time replacing existing software running on unsupported or barely supported hardware. Why replace a working Solaris 7/8 install on an Enterprise 6500 with a copy of Linux that barely supports it? Hardly makes sense in the real world.
Why would Sun be screwed? Nobody will make a dent in their well-established heavy iron market, and Solaris is the only OS that will run on 3500/4500/5500/6500 servers, as well as the 10000. Even the 250/450 boxes sell quite well.. Again, Solaris is the OS of choice. I don't see Sun being "screwed" in the short term, all OSes involved here are moving targets; nobody is going to stand still while Linux progresses.
And how does deriving a more restrictively licensed version of some software restrict the availability and usability of the original? It doesn't, so what's your point? You're still able to use the original freely and are free not to use the restricted work. In other words, NOTHING has changed.
Re:MD is dead - when portable mp3 cdr players are
on
Sony Digital Downloads
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· Score: 1
Wrong. Sony sells 80 minute MDs, you can record in mono for 144/160 minute discs, and with Sony's new all-in-one dubbing machine, you can record MDs at up to 4x speed, depending on the quality of the CD to be copied. Please get your facts straight before posting again.
Slashdot Mirror
You make it sound like once you slap the GPL on some code, it automatically becomes attractive enough to "steal" to closed source development groups. Sorry, that just isn't true. Taking a look at Freshmeat alone seems to suggest that most companies would want to stay far, far away from most GPL'd code not for it's license but because of the quality ;)
There is a world of open/free software outside the small sphere of the GPL/FSF. Ever heard of the BSD, X11/MIT, Apache, and many other licenses?
Hardly. More and more people TiVo purchasers (DirecTV has been pushing their combined boxes hard for a while now) are NOT technically-oriented users, i.e., 99% of America's consumers. The other 1% (Slashbots, geeks, whatever you choose to call them) will not make a sizable dent in TiVo's revenue stream, I'd wager.
But NAT hasn't solved any "IP shortage" problem, either. It has merely postponed the inevitable and at the same time completely broken the end-to-end nature of the Internet. Think of how many applications are broken and require twisted special cases to be handled by a NAT gateway..
Your handwriting must be HORRIBLE, or perhaps you aren't writing in the Roman alphabet. My 2100 is *fine* for both printing and cursive, and works equally well for anyone else I know with a Newton. As for a keyboard, did you never see the Newton's expansion keyboard? Please research the facts before you blindly attack anything with the Apple logo. I realize that this is a very popular pasttime on Slashdot, but try to stand out from the crowd.
Wow, classic, go ahead and make this a "white" against "non-white" issue. Brilliant. Is it your belief thta non-white people cannot be wealthy or do not possess Internet access?
Oh man. The moon is slightly less than 250,000 miles away, yes, IN A STRAIGHT LINE. Do you think the Apollo spacecraft traveled in a straight line to reach the moon? Are you aware of how any space travel occurs?
:)
The sad thing is, this posting was probably a troll and therefore I just got trolled, but the temptation to let this tidbit of false information slip by was too great.
NIMBY shortsightedness? New Hampshire and probably even Vermont (think of all the cows in Vermont too!) have a higher population density than Nevada on average, no to mention the fact that you would have to deal with the relatively large population of Massachusetts that would feel uncomfortably close to such a disposal facility.
My code has no more "choice" as to where it wants to go anymore than my desk or fan or telephone has a choice. Please stop assigning human attributes to something like source code. If the whole basis of existance for the GPL is as you say, to give the code the ability "to distribute itself to wherever the code wants to go", then that's pretty sad. I'd prefer to think that it stands on more solid, sensible grounds.
Why do you blindly assume he's using Linux? Maybe he's using FreeBSD (BSD license), Apache (Apache license, similar to BSD), XFre86 (XFree86 license, derived from the X11/MIT license), among THOUSANDS of other tools that are NOT licensed under the GPL. Linux is not the end all and be all. There is a great big wide world out there outside of the tiny space Linux and the GPL occupy.
Your food analogy is flawed. Nowhere on food products at home do I see *how* to prepare those foods. There are no proportions, or cooking instructions. You could spend years on a complicated piece of food trying to "reverse engineer" it. Source code for a program is basically like a fully documented recipe.
Wrong. It should read "Oh, and FreeBSD runs most Linux binaries unmodified." Please get your facts straight before posting again, thanks.
What sense does this make? Apple is hardware company and margins on PC hardware are currently nearly paper-thin. They won't make money by selling (or giving away) their software on for Intel.
The same as MiniDisc, with over 15 vendors of that technology? I wouldn't call that getting "sucked into one vendor". Please check your facts before posting. Sony has licensed MemoryStick technology to several other companies.
How did the license prevent you from doing any "real" work on it? Were you tripped up by possibly having to pay for a fine product for commercial use?
The GPL inherently does *nothing* to accelerate development of software. That's not what a license is for.
Like computers? Computers depend on a quantum effects... :)
No, it would be an indirect endorsement of the open source method. Open source development does not equate to Linux; or would you have us believe that XFree86 and Apache are merely Linux projects?
Umm.. for quite a while, before Linux if you consider the INRIA and KAME (integrated in 4.0) patches provided IPv6 connectivity since at least FreeBSD 2.2.8 (released Dec 1998). Try doing a little more research before you spout off.
0.9 repeating is equal to 1. You should have learned that in grade school :)
Warburton also played a short-lived character on "News Radio" before they canceled it. He played an evil corporate takeover artist..
Small point, but important.. Apache does not imply Linux. Apache will run under quite a few operating systems, including oddballs like NT and OS/2, even a Siemens mainframe.
Linux may "run" on a lot of hardware platforms, but there are huge gaps still there, and it would have a tough time replacing existing software running on unsupported or barely supported hardware. Why replace a working Solaris 7/8 install on an Enterprise 6500 with a copy of Linux that barely supports it? Hardly makes sense in the real world.
Why would Sun be screwed? Nobody will make a dent in their well-established heavy iron market, and Solaris is the only OS that will run on 3500/4500/5500/6500 servers, as well as the 10000. Even the 250/450 boxes sell quite well.. Again, Solaris is the OS of choice. I don't see Sun being "screwed" in the short term, all OSes involved here are moving targets; nobody is going to stand still while Linux progresses.
And how does deriving a more restrictively licensed version of some software restrict the availability and usability of the original? It doesn't, so what's your point? You're still able to use the original freely and are free not to use the restricted work. In other words, NOTHING has changed.
Wrong. Sony sells 80 minute MDs, you can record in mono for 144/160 minute discs, and with Sony's new all-in-one dubbing machine, you can record MDs at up to 4x speed, depending on the quality of the CD to be copied. Please get your facts straight before posting again.