If the Coverity bug report for FOSS software is true, NetBSD is amazingly well done and bug-free.http://scan.coverity.com/
By that measure Ethereal is well done, but that is clearly not true since it is filled with remote exploits and developed by a team that does not care about security.
The Coverity scannings are useful for catching some types of bugs, but a low "Defect Reports/KLOC" does not imply that the software is safe nor that it is well designed.
there are plenty of Western companies that will happily develop the technology. For a modest fee, of course. I'm sure that Yahoo have much to contribute on how to stiffle free speech for the sake of profit.
Of course the source code is available, but you have to personnally agree to a restrictive license. This is why Sun Java is not easily available as the OpenBSD Makefile for 1.5 port shows:
# Error message for distfile. FETCH_MANUALLY= "You must manually fetch the distribution files, place" FETCH_MANUALLY+= "them in ${FULLDISTDIR} and then run make again." FETCH_MANUALLY+= "Get the SCSL source \& binary files:" FETCH_MANUALLY+= " ${DISTNAME}-src-scsl.zip" FETCH_MANUALLY+= " ${DISTNAME}-bin-scsl.zip" FETCH_MANUALLY+= "from http://wwws.sun.com/software/communitysource/j2se/ java2/download.html" FETCH_MANUALLY+= "Get the BSD patchset file:" FETCH_MANUALLY+= " bsd-jdk15-patches-3.tar.bz2" FETCH_MANUALLY+= "from http://www.eyesbeyond.com/freebsddom/java/jdk15.ht ml"
Of course it's more rewarding to create a new feature. First of all, no coder enjoys working on foreign code. It just doesn't "look right", doesn't "feel right", simply because everyone has his own style.
Of course, every developer has their own way of doing things, but an appropiate coding standard helps to read the code.
Few people do it out of generosity or because it "feels good".
Oh boy are you wrong, but then this must be alien concepts to you.
Maybe this is the time for a group of kernel developers to go over the code looking carefully for those long standing bugs and more important look for security problems. Do what OpenBSD did back during the 2.0-2.1 release. Even if it takes much longer (6months - 1 year) to make a new release wouldn't that be for the better.
Note that for OpenBSD this part of their development model: They are still doing it. However, it's much less effort now than when they did it the first time.
My Windows XP box only goes down rarely for updates and it does it at night when I am not there. Last time, I had over 100 days of uptime (this is a desktop machine).
You don't do Windows Update very often, do you?
There are coworkers of mine who would have fainted three years ago if they heard me say something like this, but Linux just isn't the lean, reliable operating system it used to be.
Use something that cares more about quality than new features, like the *BSD.
I think that USA is great country, and there is much to admire. However, that cannot be said of the current Administration which is downright scary.
There is a hug influx of money into US by foreign central banks having valuta reservers in US dollars, enormous foreign investments (funds, Arab petro dollars etc) and huge trade deficit.
Conbine this with enourmous Federal spending (Iraq, as an example), budget deficit, huge tax cuts and US families that are indebted. This is not sustainable. Was it last year that the South-Korean Central Bank hinted that they might have less reserves in US$ and the Dow Jones took a dive? Making war cost money, alot of money.
As for the size of US "defence": It uses more than even at the coldest of the cold war. And to what ends?
So while the FCC doesn't have any direct authority outside of the U.S., it affects how lots of things which end up on the world market are made, and you'd have to be pretty naive to just ignore that.
Of course FCC regulations have influence outside USA, as many other laws and regulations. This does not imply that the rest of the world should meekly accept these regulations as an excuse for hardware companies not to release hardware documentation. That I don't care for some US regulations/laws does not mean that I'm indifferent, as some posters think I am.
But this is all beside the point; the discussion has gone off into one of "I'm not from the US so why should I care what your government does" which in my opinion is dumb as hell.
Now you are misrepresenting my posts. Let me rephrase: I do not have to follow US regulations as an EU citizen living in EU. In this sense I don't care about US regulations.
If you can't figure out why non-US citizens should care about the policies of the largest importer of goods, Of course we do! We are financing your consumerism and Iraq war.
the largest economy, You sure got the largest debt.
the largest provider of foreign aid, You mean weapons?
the largest IMF contributor To protect the interests of companies like Enron.
a permenant member of the UN security council, Yo got that one right. If you only paid your fees to UN.
and the largest military power
Yes, it's obscene in it's size.
No he doesn't. He says "Some Linux (and recently FreeBSD too) developers are willing to sign NDAs so that a few people get the documentation, and I believe that this is the largest problem facing the kernel side of the open source community today."
TdR: There are always at least a few efforts in the project to get more documentation out of vendors. But some vendors are still incredibly resistant. We often run into vendors who have signed NDA agreements with Linux developers, who will then happily write a Linux driver filled with magic numbers, which only one developer in the world understands. Having signed the NDA ensured that Linux got a working driver, sure, but the internals are indistinguishable from magic. It cannot be fixed by anyone else, because it is full of secrets. It is a source code version of a blob.
Your ignorance and lack of thought are astonishing. "US based companies" have nothing to do with it...where else are you going to go with your money? Every wifi chipset manufacturer sells its products in the US, and thus abides by FCC rules.
Of course everyone selling products in USA has to comply with US regulations and laws.
The manufacturers in question here are mostly Taiwanese. The issue here is that, regardless of where a company is based or chooses to make its products, it invariably wants to sell those products in the US. Thus the manufacturer must comply with US regulations.
Are you stupid? The manufacturer has to comply with US regulations when doing business in USA. When doing business in another country, then another set of regulations apply.
Now damn it, this is completely wrong. Read my other reply to your previous, identical statement, which I posted before you posted this. Our laws impact you because the hardware manufacturers want to sell their stuff here. So you are stuck with FCC compliant products, regardless of whether you are under FCC jurisdiction.
You are very confused. I'm not obliged to follow FCC regulations while not in USA, or any other US law for that matter. A wireless product sold in USA has to be FCC compliant, and that is clear, but that does not imply that FCC regulations are world wide in their scope. Actually, in some countries it's downright illegal to use FCC regulations (think about different channels availalable for home use).
An open source driver is not the same as documentation. In the article he mentions open source drivers written under NDA that are essensially unmaintainable, whence of dubious quality. In another article Theo de Raadt describes open source drivers written under NDA as the open source equivalent of binary blobs.
As for FCC regulations and me as an EU citizen: I don't have to comply with FCC regulations while not in USA. The same goes for strong encryption. In this sense I don't care about FCC regulations. That US based companies think that I should care about FCC just means I go elsewhere with my money.
See, here's the thing...the people he needs to convince here are the hardware manufacturers. You aren't going to get them to release open drivers by suggesting that the FCC should "go after" them.
You did not really read that article, did you? OpenBSD wants hardware documentation, and besides, why should I as an EU citizen care about FCC regulations?
Not to knock ubuntu, fedora, freespire, and opensuse, but the Debian community has been around since 1993.
Not to knock the various Linux distributions, but it seems that the Linux community in general embraces binary blobs drivers. and kernel developers put shit like NDIS wrapers into the kernel or drivers written under NDA.
Slashdot Mirror
By that measure Ethereal is well done, but that is clearly not true since it is filled with remote exploits and developed by a team that does not care about security. The Coverity scannings are useful for catching some types of bugs, but a low "Defect Reports/KLOC" does not imply that the software is safe nor that it is well designed.
Now, that is just hilarious!
there are plenty of Western companies that will happily develop the technology. For a modest fee, of course. I'm sure that Yahoo have much to contribute on how to stiffle free speech for the sake of profit.
Good luck finding the license on that page without having to register first.
Of course the source code is available, but you have to personnally agree to a restrictive license. This is why Sun Java is not easily available as the OpenBSD Makefile for 1.5 port shows:
I think you misunderstood my post. When a corporation wants some features, they should pay for it. Open source developer != sucker works for free.
Common, dude! This is nothing less than a transparent scheme to get highly qualified persons work for free. Why does this remind me of IBM and Linux?
Of course, every developer has their own way of doing things, but an appropiate coding standard helps to read the code.
Few people do it out of generosity or because it "feels good".
Oh boy are you wrong, but then this must be alien concepts to you.
Note that for OpenBSD this part of their development model: They are still doing it. However, it's much less effort now than when they did it the first time.
You don't do Windows Update very often, do you?
There are coworkers of mine who would have fainted three years ago if they heard me say something like this, but Linux just isn't the lean, reliable operating system it used to be.
Use something that cares more about quality than new features, like the *BSD.
This is just treating the symptons rather than the cause: bad development with focus on features and performance instead of quality and correct code.
Nowadays there is not much difference between a Democrat and a Republican, is there?
but I'm sure that Google neglected to "donate" to Republicans.
I think that USA is great country, and there is much to admire. However, that cannot be said of the current Administration which is downright scary.
There is a hug influx of money into US by foreign central banks having valuta reservers in US dollars, enormous foreign investments (funds, Arab petro dollars etc) and huge trade deficit. Conbine this with enourmous Federal spending (Iraq, as an example), budget deficit, huge tax cuts and US families that are indebted. This is not sustainable. Was it last year that the South-Korean Central Bank hinted that they might have less reserves in US$ and the Dow Jones took a dive? Making war cost money, alot of money.
As for the size of US "defence": It uses more than even at the coldest of the cold war. And to what ends?
Of course FCC regulations have influence outside USA, as many other laws and regulations. This does not imply that the rest of the world should meekly accept these regulations as an excuse for hardware companies not to release hardware documentation. That I don't care for some US regulations/laws does not mean that I'm indifferent, as some posters think I am.
Now you are misrepresenting my posts. Let me rephrase: I do not have to follow US regulations as an EU citizen living in EU. In this sense I don't care about US regulations.
If you can't figure out why non-US citizens should care about the policies of the largest importer of goods, Of course we do! We are financing your consumerism and Iraq war.
the largest economy, You sure got the largest debt.
the largest provider of foreign aid, You mean weapons?
the largest IMF contributor To protect the interests of companies like Enron.
a permenant member of the UN security council, Yo got that one right. If you only paid your fees to UN.
and the largest military power Yes, it's obscene in it's size.
Your MAC address survives at most until the next router.
Yeah, yeah, here's the quote
Your ignorance and lack of thought are astonishing. "US based companies" have nothing to do with it...where else are you going to go with your money? Every wifi chipset manufacturer sells its products in the US, and thus abides by FCC rules.
Of course everyone selling products in USA has to comply with US regulations and laws.
The manufacturers in question here are mostly Taiwanese. The issue here is that, regardless of where a company is based or chooses to make its products, it invariably wants to sell those products in the US. Thus the manufacturer must comply with US regulations.
Are you stupid? The manufacturer has to comply with US regulations when doing business in USA. When doing business in another country, then another set of regulations apply.
You are very confused. I'm not obliged to follow FCC regulations while not in USA, or any other US law for that matter. A wireless product sold in USA has to be FCC compliant, and that is clear, but that does not imply that FCC regulations are world wide in their scope. Actually, in some countries it's downright illegal to use FCC regulations (think about different channels availalable for home use).
As for FCC regulations and me as an EU citizen: I don't have to comply with FCC regulations while not in USA. The same goes for strong encryption. In this sense I don't care about FCC regulations. That US based companies think that I should care about FCC just means I go elsewhere with my money.
FCC rules does not apply to me, so why should I care about those restrictions? This is similar to use of strong encryption and US regulations.
You did not really read that article, did you? OpenBSD wants hardware documentation, and besides, why should I as an EU citizen care about FCC regulations?
Not to knock the various Linux distributions, but it seems that the Linux community in general embraces binary blobs drivers. and kernel developers put shit like NDIS wrapers into the kernel or drivers written under NDA.
Whatever gave you that idea? Vaccination was not invented in USA, nor where USA first out to have vaccination programs.
Didn't your mommy tell you that Monopoly money aren't real money?