Where did you read that? They are dropping some lines of workstations, not "stepping out of the market". Their MIPS roadmap extends, it says, to 2006 and their Intel plans are very much in place.
Slashdot could do with editors who actually read the subject matter.
Are the server-side scripts distributed in any form at all? If they're just using some code they wrote, for their own purposes, and not distributing it, the question of GPL-ing it doesn't arise. If they are distributing some kind of binary then the GPL would oblige them to make the source available, but if they are not distributing anything else, why would they need to distribute the source?
I believe Cygnus does this sort of thing for some custom GCC enhancements. These are made to order for customers, and the customers get it under the GPL, but nothing in the GPL forces either the customers or Cygnus to distribute the changes to *everybody*. If they do distribute, it must be under the GPL, but they need not distribute anything at all.
I don't see why anyone is worried about Red Hat changing the GPL status of GCC. The entire existing codebase is copyrighted by the FSF. So there is no way Red Hat can alter the licensing of that. Therefore any contribution they make should also be GPL'd. Of course they may or may not assign the copyrights to the FSF, but they certainly will if they want their changes to be used. In any case, they can't change the licence without rewriting the entire existing code base.
Read his short story "The fires within" (reproduced in "Reach for tomorrow". That story actually suggests intelligent life in our planet's hot interior.
If you think this reveals the extent of Brett Glass's cluelessness, try browsing the freebsd-chat mailing list archives sometime. This guy's not a hacker, not even a programmer, but his liberal advice to all (especially on matters of advocacy) regularly gets him into flame wars. Also he detests linux, thinks the GPL is evil, etc etc. Actually this article was quite readable by his standards. It didn't have his typical know-it-all attitude and didn't try to preach to the converted. It didn't even try to attack the GPL. I was impressed.
Since nobody's mentioned it so far... Dan Bernstein is the author of qmail, ezmlm, and lots of other great software. Anyone who has read the qmail docs or his webpage will know that he places security above anything else, doesn't mince his words, and doesn't hesitate to be a nonconformist (eg, running his web site with his own secure anonymous FTP server, rather than a http server...)
He's probably among the best possible people for this case.
" according to Koch, called the Bombay Atomic Research Center the "B'Hadvah Atomic Research Center." When Koch corrected him, JP admitted it must have been India."
Actually, it's called the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. (after Homi Bhabha, nuclear physicist). So phonetically JP was closer to the mark than Koch, though of course he got the country wrong.
As a followup to my post above: for newbies who want linux installed on their existing computer, this could be a useful "service" provided by linux service providers. Does anyone actually do this? Say, rather than pay $50 for just the CD, pay a bit more for the CD plus installation service.
Exactly why did he try installing Caldera 1.3, when the current version is 2.3, I wonder. Yes, we all had a hard time installing linux the first time, but we didn't write articles on CNN about it. Total newbies can go for a preinstalled system, the way they do with windows. Even here in India I know dealers who preinstall linux.
A greater fraction, certainly, a greater number, certainly not. India's population is around a billion. Around 300 million of them are educated to at least high school or college level. Thats more than the population of the US.
daveo above seems justified in his unhappiness about being moderated down. His past comments have never got a score less than zero (or more -- though some were quite informative) and his comments in this thread don't deserve a minus 1 either.
Could it be someone dislikes daveo? I've posted only 2-3 times earlier, lets see how this one fares...
Slashdot Mirror
Where did you read that? They are dropping some lines of workstations,
not "stepping out of the market". Their MIPS roadmap extends, it says,
to 2006 and their Intel plans are very much in place.
Slashdot could do with editors who actually read the subject matter.
Are the server-side scripts distributed in any form at all? If they're just using
some code they wrote, for their own purposes, and not distributing it, the question
of GPL-ing it doesn't arise. If they are distributing some kind of binary then the
GPL would oblige them to make the source available, but if they are not distributing
anything else, why would they need to distribute the source?
I believe Cygnus does this sort of thing for some custom GCC enhancements. These are
made to order for customers, and the customers get it under the GPL, but nothing in
the GPL forces either the customers or Cygnus to distribute the changes to *everybody*.
If they do distribute, it must be under the GPL, but they need not distribute
anything at all.
I don't see why anyone is worried about Red Hat changing the GPL status of GCC. The entire existing codebase is copyrighted by the FSF. So there is no way Red Hat can alter the licensing of that. Therefore any contribution they make should also be GPL'd. Of course they may or may not assign the copyrights to the FSF, but they certainly will if they want their changes to be used. In any case, they can't change the licence without rewriting the entire existing code base.
Read his short story "The fires within" (reproduced in
"Reach for tomorrow". That story actually suggests
intelligent life in our planet's hot interior.
If you think this reveals the extent of Brett Glass's cluelessness, try browsing the freebsd-chat mailing list archives sometime. This guy's not a hacker, not even a programmer, but his liberal advice to all (especially on matters of advocacy) regularly gets him into flame wars. Also he detests linux, thinks the GPL is evil, etc etc. Actually this article was quite readable by his standards. It didn't have his typical know-it-all attitude and didn't try to preach to the converted. It didn't even try to attack the GPL. I was impressed.
Since nobody's mentioned it so far... Dan Bernstein is the author of
qmail, ezmlm, and lots of other great software. Anyone who
has read the qmail docs or his webpage
will know that he places security above anything else, doesn't
mince his words, and doesn't hesitate to be a nonconformist
(eg, running his web site with his own secure anonymous
FTP server, rather than a http server...)
He's probably among the best possible people for this case.
" according to Koch, called the Bombay Atomic Research Center the
"B'Hadvah Atomic Research Center." When Koch corrected him, JP
admitted it must have been India."
Actually, it's called the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. (after Homi Bhabha, nuclear physicist).
So phonetically JP was closer to the mark than Koch, though
of course he got the country wrong.
As a followup to my post above: for newbies who want linux
installed on their existing computer, this could be a
useful "service" provided by linux service providers.
Does anyone actually do this? Say, rather than
pay $50 for just the CD, pay a bit more for the
CD plus installation service.
Exactly why did he try installing Caldera 1.3, when the current version is 2.3, I wonder. Yes, we all had a hard time installing linux the first time, but we didn't write articles on CNN about it. Total newbies can go for a preinstalled system, the way they do with windows. Even here in India I know dealers who preinstall linux.
A greater fraction, certainly, a greater number, certainly not. India's population is around a billion. Around 300 million of them are educated to at least high school or college level. Thats more than the population of the US.
daveo above seems justified in his unhappiness about
being moderated down. His past comments have never
got a score less than zero (or more -- though some
were quite informative) and his comments in this
thread don't deserve a minus 1 either.
Could it be someone dislikes daveo?
I've posted only 2-3 times earlier, lets see
how this one fares...