What I don't understand about all this is how forking is bad for a project. Just because a project forks doesn't mean the two won't share code. Look at all the stuff that's forked off of linux, and made it back into the main project. Forking doesn't worry me. It's when your project doesn't fork when you should be concerned. Look at propriatary software, for example. Can you remember the last time someone came out and said, "Boy, I really like Adobe Photoshop, It's so easy to use..."
I find myself criticizing gartner whever they come out and say something stupid. In fact, they've spread so much fud over the years that I have trouble giving them any sort of notice. This however is the first thing they've said, that I agree with in several years. I'm impressed. Now if only they would keep it up.
I would bet that Novell has a clause hanging around there in the ambiguious language that would allow them to undo the whole thing if they wanted to. I can't wait to see SCO try to sue Novell over this. They'll get crushed. I think McBride knows that. Which is why you'll never see it.
It's always fun to watch Darl and his loud and continued misunderstandings of what exactly a copyright is. I found this quote very entertaining.
"What's left in this company are concepts and ideas. If you take away the ability to protect that, we're reduced out ability to compete as a country (cue the break out the flag, someone)."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't copyright the protection of literary works? I know they've changed copyrights a bit recently, but as far as I know, it's still impossible to copyright an idea. If that were possible, entire literary genres would be in jeopardy. Imagine what would happen if you had to pay Geffen Records every time you wanted to write a love song?
Another technical point: (quoting from the article)
Q: What percentage of Linux is infringing?
A: Roughly one million lines of code. 20% of the Linux kernel. BSD is in a clear legal environment. There are dozens of protected BSD files that have made there way into Linux.
Which is interesting. This guy says there are 30,000,000 (thirty million) lines of code in Linux. I've heard it elsewhere as well, mostly here.That would mean that there would need to be at least 6,000,000 lines of code in order to constitute a 20% infringement.Yet, McBride says there are only a million lines of infringing code.And that includes their extremely broad definition of derivative works.
I could be pissing up the wrong tree, but it looks like he's full of it. But we knew that.Let's just hope their legal team shows the same level of ineptitude that McBride has.:)
Would have been funnier if you were an atterny representing the SCO group of utah, who have recently faced legal action against IBM. You are now seeking refuge in switzerland, and would like to give us the 3billion dollars won or maybe not won in a settlement because you are a good guy.
Maybe, but it's note something that comes turned on by default. In fact, it doesn't look like something you can do without a third party tool of one kind or another. Every window manager I've ever used in linux has it built right in.
Don't drop Microsoft because you don't like their business practices. Dump it because it's riddled with holes, sucks up your system resources, costs too much, and is years behind *nix in the GUI department.
For example, would you believe that there are no current versions of Windows that support multiple desktops within a user session? I hear they're finally adding something like that to longhorn, but Linux has had it forever now.
I don't feel one way or the other about Microsoft. I could care less about how they behave, because quite frankly there are a hundred other players in the industry that behave just as badly if not worse than Microsoft does. So it's relative. I've all but abandoned their products because I don't like being confined to something as limited as Windows. It's enough to make you claustrophobic.
Great!
This is good news, even though they're just doing it to be mean spirited. These people will do nothing but help the IBM case. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Let em come. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can sort out the pieces of SCO, sell them off, and get on with our lives. Although, I don't know what I would talk about here and on COLA at three in the morning if that happened. We would probably go back to talking about how bad microsloth sucks.
In the process of moving The site to BSD or RedHat. Shorthand runs better on nix anyway. More stable. My current web hoster has dropped off the face of the planet as far as support. Sorry you had to see that.
If it wearen't quality, there would be no reason to use it based on it's merits.
And if the folks at Gentoo wanted more people to use it without having to take the time to develop a better product, they would have to spread doubts about competing products.
After all, if both choices are bad, you want the lesser of two evils, right?
How else could they ensure that you would buy into their invasive DRM, ever more propriatary protocols, deplorable business practices, constand security problems, and forced renewable licensing that they know damn good and well that you don't want?
I think it's funny that microsoft needs to pay people to say how great their products are. Maybe they should focus on building a better product than telling some analyst to write nice things about them. Come on. Anyone could do that.
Nope, XP on my Dual Xeon has trouble with my Nvidia video card. It randomly pukes and gives me the slightly darker blue screen of death than you would see on Windows 95/98. Usually, when running one or the other video game for the kid.
By Contrast, Linux works well with this particular video card. Who'dve thunk?
My perfectly average eight year old daughter uses Debian , a "non user friendly" distro according to your post with no problem at all. She prefers it to windows xp because "it has better games", "cooler menus", and "no blue screens!"
The system is a vanilla install with some extra game packs, Evolution, Mozilla, and KDE. Nothing fancy.
If my kid can do it with next to no training aside from a basic understanding of how to use a GUI based operating system, I have a hard time believing adults who have been working with computers for several years or more would have trouble with it.
When it comes down to it, people like to complain about change, so they make excuses about why they aren't adopting linux. "But it's harder to use," "It doesn't have enough software," "It doesn't have any GUI tools" are excuses I hear all the time.
If they would simply try a current version of linux, maybe use it for a week or two, they would find that none of these excuses are true of modern linux distributions.
Pardon me for not agreeing here, but why is it always, "build something on top of debian?" Why not just use debian the way it is. Debian is a killer operating system.
Right, but where this differs is that the underwear gnomes would need to go out and start convincing people to wear socks instead of underwear, and pay them for it.
Which would make their business plan look something like this:
1. Collect underwear 2. Get $26,000,000 from microsoft. 3. Give the money away to those that prefer to wear socks instead of underwear. 4. PROFIT!
Yeah, but that's why the car makers have an army of lawyers gathering information, and offering hard cash to accident victims... provided they sign an NDA. Many cars, trucks, and SUV's even with government regulation are still not safe. After almost two decades, it's only now that car companies are even beginning to solve serious problems like SUV rollover, and random explosions. If the average driver had any idea how unsafe motor vehicles are, no one would drive, or the state of the industry would be very different.
Don't worry, Windows is making strides in stability every day because of it's open design and collaborative development process. One day, it will be a suitable desktop operating system. Maybe it will even be enterprise ready. But that's still a ways off.
If we were living in a world where governments had even the most basic understanding of the technologies in play, I would say you were right.
But we don't.
World wide, governments have been attempting to regulate technology by passing laws that sound good on paper, but are either too stupid to enforce, or impossible to implement.
Based on the example set by current governments over the last decade or so, I think it's safe to say that by the time the governments of the world realize what's going on, there will be a quantum computer in every pocket.
The banks and security experts will do what they have always done... adapt and change with the times, or face imminent obsolescence.
Slashdot Mirror
What I don't understand about all this is how forking is bad for a project. Just because a project forks doesn't mean the two won't share code. Look at all the stuff that's forked off of linux, and made it back into the main project. Forking doesn't worry me. It's when your project doesn't fork when you should be concerned. Look at propriatary software, for example. Can you remember the last time someone came out and said, "Boy, I really like Adobe Photoshop, It's so easy to use..."
???
I find myself criticizing gartner whever they come out and say something stupid. In fact, they've spread so much fud over the years that I have trouble giving them any sort of notice. This however is the first thing they've said, that I agree with in several years. I'm impressed. Now if only they would keep it up.
I would bet that Novell has a clause hanging around there in the ambiguious language that would allow them to undo the whole thing if they wanted to. I can't wait to see SCO try to sue Novell over this. They'll get crushed. I think McBride knows that. Which is why you'll never see it.
It's always fun to watch Darl and his loud and continued misunderstandings of what exactly a copyright is. I found this quote very entertaining.
:)
"What's left in this company are concepts and ideas. If you take away the ability to protect that, we're reduced out ability to compete as a country (cue the break out the flag, someone)."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't copyright the protection of literary works? I know they've changed copyrights a bit recently, but as far as I know, it's still impossible to copyright an idea. If that were possible, entire literary genres would be in jeopardy. Imagine what would happen if you had to pay Geffen Records every time you wanted to write a love song?
Another technical point: (quoting from the article)
Q: What percentage of Linux is infringing?
A: Roughly one million lines of code. 20% of the Linux kernel. BSD is in a clear legal environment. There are dozens of protected BSD files that have made there way into Linux.
Which is interesting. This guy says there are 30,000,000 (thirty million) lines of code in Linux. I've heard it elsewhere as well, mostly here.That would mean that there would need to be at least 6,000,000 lines of code in order to constitute a 20% infringement.Yet, McBride says there are only a million lines of infringing code.And that includes their extremely broad definition of derivative works.
I could be pissing up the wrong tree, but it looks like he's full of it. But we knew that.Let's just hope their legal team shows the same level of ineptitude that McBride has.
Would have been funnier if you were an atterny representing the SCO group of utah, who have recently faced legal action against IBM. You are now seeking refuge in switzerland, and would like to give us the 3billion dollars won or maybe not won in a settlement because you are a good guy.
It's sad, ironic, even funny. Does anyone know if there is a list of countries that have opted out of the microsoft money machine so far?
Maybe, but it's note something that comes turned on by default. In fact, it doesn't look like something you can do without a third party tool of one kind or another. Every window manager I've ever used in linux has it built right in.
Don't drop Microsoft because you don't like their business practices. Dump it because it's riddled with holes, sucks up your system resources, costs too much, and is years behind *nix in the GUI department.
For example, would you believe that there are no current versions of Windows that support multiple desktops within a user session? I hear they're finally adding something like that to longhorn, but Linux has had it forever now.
I don't feel one way or the other about Microsoft. I could care less about how they behave, because quite frankly there are a hundred other players in the industry that behave just as badly if not worse than Microsoft does. So it's relative. I've all but abandoned their products because I don't like being confined to something as limited as Windows. It's enough to make you claustrophobic.
Great! This is good news, even though they're just doing it to be mean spirited. These people will do nothing but help the IBM case. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Let em come. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can sort out the pieces of SCO, sell them off, and get on with our lives. Although, I don't know what I would talk about here and on COLA at three in the morning if that happened. We would probably go back to talking about how bad microsloth sucks.
In the process of moving The site to BSD or RedHat. Shorthand runs better on nix anyway. More stable. My current web hoster has dropped off the face of the planet as far as support. Sorry you had to see that.
Right. It's a quality product.
If it wearen't quality, there would be no reason to use it based on it's merits.
And if the folks at Gentoo wanted more people to use it without having to take the time to develop a better product, they would have to spread doubts about competing products.
After all, if both choices are bad, you want the lesser of two evils, right?
How else could they ensure that you would buy into their invasive DRM, ever more propriatary protocols, deplorable business practices, constand security problems, and forced renewable licensing that they know damn good and well that you don't want?
Hey that would be great. And then he could sell the software on ebay and buy a yacht in an obvious attempt to get cought!
I think it's funny that microsoft needs to pay people to say how great their products are. Maybe they should focus on building a better product than telling some analyst to write nice things about them. Come on. Anyone could do that.
There are about 600 freeware games installed on this system. We have a Playstation for the commercial stuff.
Nope,
XP on my Dual Xeon has trouble with my Nvidia video card. It randomly pukes and gives me the slightly darker blue screen of death than you would see on Windows 95/98. Usually, when running one or the other video game for the kid.
By Contrast, Linux works well with this particular video card. Who'dve thunk?
My perfectly average eight year old daughter uses Debian , a "non user friendly" distro according to your post with no problem at all. She prefers it to windows xp because "it has better games", "cooler menus", and "no blue screens!"
The system is a vanilla install with some extra game packs, Evolution, Mozilla, and KDE. Nothing fancy.
If my kid can do it with next to no training aside from a basic understanding of how to use a GUI based operating system, I have a hard time believing adults who have been working with computers for several years or more would have trouble with it.
When it comes down to it, people like to complain about change, so they make excuses about why they aren't adopting linux. "But it's harder to use," "It doesn't have enough software," "It doesn't have any GUI tools" are excuses I hear all the time.
If they would simply try a current version of linux, maybe use it for a week or two, they would find that none of these excuses are true of modern linux distributions.
Pardon me for not agreeing here, but why is it always, "build something on top of debian?" Why not just use debian the way it is. Debian is a killer operating system.
Yeah, probably. It's hard to tell when you've had as much coffee as I have.
Must get underwear... and pay microsoft compulsory licensing fees...
Right, but where this differs is that the underwear gnomes would need to go out and start convincing people to wear socks instead of underwear, and pay them for it.
Which would make their business plan look something like this:
1. Collect underwear
2. Get $26,000,000 from microsoft.
3. Give the money away to those that prefer to wear socks instead of underwear.
4. PROFIT!
Forget the patch, I'm having spaghetti!
Yeah, but that's why the car makers have an army of lawyers gathering information, and offering hard cash to accident victims... provided they sign an NDA. Many cars, trucks, and SUV's even with government regulation are still not safe. After almost two decades, it's only now that car companies are even beginning to solve serious problems like SUV rollover, and random explosions. If the average driver had any idea how unsafe motor vehicles are, no one would drive, or the state of the industry would be very different.
Don't worry, Windows is making strides in stability every day because of it's open design and collaborative development process. One day, it will be a suitable desktop operating system. Maybe it will even be enterprise ready. But that's still a ways off.
The RIAA's technical case isn't very strong. I would be curious to see if evidence collected from Gnutella holds up in court.
If we were living in a world where governments had even the most basic understanding of the technologies in play, I would say you were right. But we don't. World wide, governments have been attempting to regulate technology by passing laws that sound good on paper, but are either too stupid to enforce, or impossible to implement. Based on the example set by current governments over the last decade or so, I think it's safe to say that by the time the governments of the world realize what's going on, there will be a quantum computer in every pocket. The banks and security experts will do what they have always done... adapt and change with the times, or face imminent obsolescence.
You're right. I should read the site before commenting. Thanks.