Unless they've also managed to upgrade all of their employees' emotional and intellectual IQ, I'd say they have the world's most modern recipe for unmitigated workplace anarchy.
There's nothing wrong with being skilled. Unskilled "developers" are a big problem in this industry.
There are also degrees of skill, and levels of domain expertise. The average corporate coder should not need to know how autoconf works in order to read a few rows from a database and splatter them on a web page.
Well let's go back to my original comment then: Stallman criticizes Torvalds (and everything else) for whatever reason. My opinion is that does not win him any more friends.
If means "ad hominem" to you then you need to go back to latin class.
Care to explain why the Free Software world needs Java? [...] What I'd like to see is a new procedural language taking most of C except replacing the zero terminated strings with something sane and including a garbage collecting string library
You answered your own question there, didn't you? Find me a "super free" replacement for Java and C and I'll stop insulting '1337' people like you who want to play with autoconf and make all day by suggesting there's a better way to write software - especially secure, stable, line-of-business, database-driven applications that don't require a masters degree in engineering and a hacker tatoo to pull off.
In the meantime though, there's Java. It's not perfect, but it's there and it works, and it has an enormous ecosystem built around the platform.
Right. Your opinion is that he should not speak his mind and keep his opinion to himself lest he insult the most holy linus (and redhat and sun).
Holy shit, they can climb into a Vaseline tank and beat each other senseless with metal dildos as far as I'm concerned. Why the hell do you have to turn this into a "I love Linus and hate Stallman" argument? Are you retarded?
His goal is not to take away market from Sun and MS. His goal has nothing to do with markets or products.
Please don't insult my intelligence, mmkay?
I bet he has never lied about what linus has said whereas you seem to feel perfectly content to lie about what he has said.
And I bet you have some serious issues with people criticizing Stallman. So he's more than free to slam everyone but no one can touch him. Did I get that right? Two paragraphs ago you were insulted at my supposed inability to deal with his criticism of Torvalds and everything else. Did you think before posting this or do letters just regularly fly out of your butt?
I am impressed by your ability to channel linus and read his mind.
You seem very angry. Take a vacation or something.
Is he not allowed to say that he disagrees with the most holy linus?
He's allowed to say whatever the hell he wants to say. As do I and you. I was merely expressing my opinion that these outbursts hurt him and his cause more than they help him. That's all.
Did you mean that you do?
No, not really. Without things like Java and advanced graphics drivers and real applications his vision is bust, because "the GNU system" can't expand and grow and take away market from Sun and Microsoft and everyone else. Or what exactly is his goal then? To just bitch about everything?
The beauty is that he actually blames Sun and Linus and everyone else for the inabilities of the people who follow him to provide alternatives to these "dirty" versions of Really Useful Things That Everyone Would Really Like To Have. Otherwise these wouldn't be issues to him at all. Perhaps you don't understand the importance of Java. I think he does.
I bet Linus will never speak to him again.
I bet he's pretty fed up with Stallman's constant broadsides, but I'm pretty sure he's perfectly capable of deciding if he's going to "speak" to Stallman or not.
Judging from this interview (and most others I've read) I'd say I hardly need to.
he subtle intrusions that Sun is offering
The "subtle intrusions" are a result of Stallman recognizing the immense value that Java brings to his world. Sun no more "intrudes" into "GNU/Whatever" than Microsoft "intrudes" into OS X. It's a tad disingenuous to suggest that Java should not exist because Stallman doesn't like how it is licensed - because it "intrudes" into his idealistic, monochromatic view of reality. If that were the case then I would have no choice but to use whatever RMS thinks is "right", productivity and quality and everything else be damned.
Subtle bullshit like that - the insinuation that this whole "problem" of free software not reigning supreme when it most certainly should is somehow Sun's or nVidia's fault is another reason why people are turned off from Stallman, and you're not helping much either.
He has a vision and he has spent a considerable amount of time and effort to realize that vision. I respect that. It's fine to criticize Microsoft. Everyone expects that anyway. I'll even give him Sun and this whole "Java is evil" spiel.
But the more he goes around criticizing other concepts (open source) and other people who make his world possible (Torvalds), if not perfect, the more he will alienate them and the farther away his dream will be. It's impossible for Stallman to realize his vision on his own. He needs Sun and Java and Torvalds and ESR and Red Hat and everyone else. At this rate however... calling Linus insufficiently political is not going to win him any more fans. And more fans is exactly what he needs.
Can't RTFA but discounting the usual Slashbot FUD that Microsoft 'punishes' those who stray into selling Linux (or whatever)... what exactly is the problem here? That retailers "should" sell Linux because "everyone" knows it's "better" than Windows? What is the rationale for expecting Circuit City to sell boxes with some other OS preinstalled?
The "shared source" concept encompasses more than one license. You can read about that here.
As for this specific release, who knows. I doubt it's going to be GPL'ed but I don't think it wil be too restrictive, unless they've gone totally berzerk and want to prevent you from "developing a comepting product" with the source or some such nonesense... though I wouldn't put it past them at all.
A lot of these releases by Microsoft (with a few exceptions like WiX or WTL) are really just meant to be useful talking points when certain arguments come up.
corporate America's [...] Have you seen the price of MS Office?
I have. And? Do you think Fortune 100 Corp. pays Staples/Best Buy retail for 30,000 MSO licenses? We are talking about "corporate america", right? I'm pretty sure it's probably a geat deal even at the $79 you quote for Apple's product, considering iWork (or whatever it's called) lacks an actual usable business-level spreadhseet.
C'mon now, do you think I'm 12 or something? You must be mistaking me for one of the people who post inane comments to your blog. It's simply amusing to see how you've become some sort of weird darling of the moderation system, and it's equally amusing to see you shoot from the hip like you did with the comment that generated this thread. That's all. It's hardly my fault that you popped a coronary back there. Though you might want to reconsider the "internet tough guy" 'tude. It's really ridiculous.
So you're bashing Microsoft ("this library is a wash" | "Microsoft throwing fuel on the fire") because the Slashdot submitter added an extraneous dot at the end of a URL?
I think this sums it up quite well - you're just engaging in your usual I-bash-Microsoft-because-I'm-so-cool routine that for some weird reason always gets you modded up.
OTOH, Microsoft had the first shipping, fully functional AJAX app (before someone came up with that acronym) in the Exchange OWA... circa 1999.
Kinda funny, but if you think about it Google Mail (the app that pretty much launched the current AJAX craze) was essentially four years behind the curve, at least client technology-wise.
Windows does not support them well, and has no alternate feature thats as useful, it is an inferior development platform.
You'll forgive me if I think you've never coded a line-of-business application with 4GL tools in your life, then.
If you can't get over your requirements and your biases and your development practices and stop thinking that everyone should do everything the same way you do, then by definition you'll never consider Windows to be a viable dev platform. But hey, everyone has to have a reason to hate Windows, so more power to you and all that.
If you expect Windows to behave like Unix then you're in for a big surprise. Otherwise it's a perfectly fine platform for developing all sorts of end user and business applications, which is what it is mostly used for. I doubt the millions of Windows developers lose any sleep over not being able to pipe text around little command line applications. That's simply *nix bias at its best.
IBM espouses an army of consultants armed with a collection of applications and CDs packed full of open source
I can assure you that IBM consultants don't run around with CDs "packed with open source". If only that were true I wouldn't have to suffer through their products.
Only Microsoft can bring you incredible innovation like this.
I enjoy a good Microsoft bash (oh lololo m$ nevar innovates!!1!) but your comment tells me you have probably no idea how commercial software works.
I think the blank password "feature" is supremely stupid, and yes, it was probably there because one of their big clients asked for it. A lot of functionality in Microsoft products come from big business feedback and most of the time it's appropriate because enterprise clients are the ones that really put the products through its paces. But it's not there because someone at Microsoft is stupid or because of "innovation" (or the lack thereof).
You pays your money and you take your chances. In this case it came back to bite them, like most "security relaxation features" their products tend to be afflicted with. As much as the "Microsoft is just stupid" line gets play, things are usually a bit more complicated than that.
The key is that it's an option that you (as the DB admin) can choose to turn off. The MySQL root account will also run with a blank password when you first install it from, say, Synaptic. It's up to you to tighten it down.
I'm sure the executives started the whipping sessions with the person responsible for allowing SQL Server to function happily with a blank 'sa' password.
Slashdot Mirror
This sounds like a PR stunt.
There are also degrees of skill, and levels of domain expertise. The average corporate coder should not need to know how autoconf works in order to read a few rows from a database and splatter them on a web page.
Well let's go back to my original comment then: Stallman criticizes Torvalds (and everything else) for whatever reason. My opinion is that does not win him any more friends.
If means "ad hominem" to you then you need to go back to latin class.
You answered your own question there, didn't you? Find me a "super free" replacement for Java and C and I'll stop insulting '1337' people like you who want to play with autoconf and make all day by suggesting there's a better way to write software - especially secure, stable, line-of-business, database-driven applications that don't require a masters degree in engineering and a hacker tatoo to pull off.
In the meantime though, there's Java. It's not perfect, but it's there and it works, and it has an enormous ecosystem built around the platform.
Holy shit, they can climb into a Vaseline tank and beat each other senseless with metal dildos as far as I'm concerned. Why the hell do you have to turn this into a "I love Linus and hate Stallman" argument? Are you retarded?
His goal is not to take away market from Sun and MS. His goal has nothing to do with markets or products.
Please don't insult my intelligence, mmkay?
I bet he has never lied about what linus has said whereas you seem to feel perfectly content to lie about what he has said.
And I bet you have some serious issues with people criticizing Stallman. So he's more than free to slam everyone but no one can touch him. Did I get that right? Two paragraphs ago you were insulted at my supposed inability to deal with his criticism of Torvalds and everything else. Did you think before posting this or do letters just regularly fly out of your butt?
I am impressed by your ability to channel linus and read his mind.
You seem very angry. Take a vacation or something.
He's allowed to say whatever the hell he wants to say. As do I and you. I was merely expressing my opinion that these outbursts hurt him and his cause more than they help him. That's all.
Did you mean that you do?
No, not really. Without things like Java and advanced graphics drivers and real applications his vision is bust, because "the GNU system" can't expand and grow and take away market from Sun and Microsoft and everyone else. Or what exactly is his goal then? To just bitch about everything?
The beauty is that he actually blames Sun and Linus and everyone else for the inabilities of the people who follow him to provide alternatives to these "dirty" versions of Really Useful Things That Everyone Would Really Like To Have. Otherwise these wouldn't be issues to him at all. Perhaps you don't understand the importance of Java. I think he does.
I bet Linus will never speak to him again.
I bet he's pretty fed up with Stallman's constant broadsides, but I'm pretty sure he's perfectly capable of deciding if he's going to "speak" to Stallman or not.
Judging from this interview (and most others I've read) I'd say I hardly need to.
he subtle intrusions that Sun is offering
The "subtle intrusions" are a result of Stallman recognizing the immense value that Java brings to his world. Sun no more "intrudes" into "GNU/Whatever" than Microsoft "intrudes" into OS X. It's a tad disingenuous to suggest that Java should not exist because Stallman doesn't like how it is licensed - because it "intrudes" into his idealistic, monochromatic view of reality. If that were the case then I would have no choice but to use whatever RMS thinks is "right", productivity and quality and everything else be damned.
Subtle bullshit like that - the insinuation that this whole "problem" of free software not reigning supreme when it most certainly should is somehow Sun's or nVidia's fault is another reason why people are turned off from Stallman, and you're not helping much either.
But the more he goes around criticizing other concepts (open source) and other people who make his world possible (Torvalds), if not perfect, the more he will alienate them and the farther away his dream will be. It's impossible for Stallman to realize his vision on his own. He needs Sun and Java and Torvalds and ESR and Red Hat and everyone else. At this rate however... calling Linus insufficiently political is not going to win him any more fans. And more fans is exactly what he needs.
OK... is this a freudian slip or do you want to follow up with the untold side of the story? =)
Can't RTFA but discounting the usual Slashbot FUD that Microsoft 'punishes' those who stray into selling Linux (or whatever)... what exactly is the problem here? That retailers "should" sell Linux because "everyone" knows it's "better" than Windows? What is the rationale for expecting Circuit City to sell boxes with some other OS preinstalled?
And this is different from IE/Windows Explorer how exactly?
As for this specific release, who knows. I doubt it's going to be GPL'ed but I don't think it wil be too restrictive, unless they've gone totally berzerk and want to prevent you from "developing a comepting product" with the source or some such nonesense... though I wouldn't put it past them at all.
A lot of these releases by Microsoft (with a few exceptions like WiX or WTL) are really just meant to be useful talking points when certain arguments come up.
I have. And? Do you think Fortune 100 Corp. pays Staples/Best Buy retail for 30,000 MSO licenses? We are talking about "corporate america", right? I'm pretty sure it's probably a geat deal even at the $79 you quote for Apple's product, considering iWork (or whatever it's called) lacks an actual usable business-level spreadhseet.
C'mon now, do you think I'm 12 or something? You must be mistaking me for one of the people who post inane comments to your blog. It's simply amusing to see how you've become some sort of weird darling of the moderation system, and it's equally amusing to see you shoot from the hip like you did with the comment that generated this thread. That's all. It's hardly my fault that you popped a coronary back there. Though you might want to reconsider the "internet tough guy" 'tude. It's really ridiculous.
It was fun to point out that you are full of it, though. Next time think before you type?
So you're bashing Microsoft ("this library is a wash" | "Microsoft throwing fuel on the fire") because the Slashdot submitter added an extraneous dot at the end of a URL?
"This library is a wash", that's precious.
Kinda funny, but if you think about it Google Mail (the app that pretty much launched the current AJAX craze) was essentially four years behind the curve, at least client technology-wise.
You'll forgive me if I think you've never coded a line-of-business application with 4GL tools in your life, then.
If you can't get over your requirements and your biases and your development practices and stop thinking that everyone should do everything the same way you do, then by definition you'll never consider Windows to be a viable dev platform. But hey, everyone has to have a reason to hate Windows, so more power to you and all that.
If you expect Windows to behave like Unix then you're in for a big surprise. Otherwise it's a perfectly fine platform for developing all sorts of end user and business applications, which is what it is mostly used for. I doubt the millions of Windows developers lose any sleep over not being able to pipe text around little command line applications. That's simply *nix bias at its best.
I can assure you that IBM consultants don't run around with CDs "packed with open source". If only that were true I wouldn't have to suffer through their products.
Heh, I love how you get modded up like that. Simply amazing.
I enjoy a good Microsoft bash (oh lololo m$ nevar innovates!!1!) but your comment tells me you have probably no idea how commercial software works.
I think the blank password "feature" is supremely stupid, and yes, it was probably there because one of their big clients asked for it. A lot of functionality in Microsoft products come from big business feedback and most of the time it's appropriate because enterprise clients are the ones that really put the products through its paces. But it's not there because someone at Microsoft is stupid or because of "innovation" (or the lack thereof).
You pays your money and you take your chances. In this case it came back to bite them, like most "security relaxation features" their products tend to be afflicted with. As much as the "Microsoft is just stupid" line gets play, things are usually a bit more complicated than that.
The key is that it's an option that you (as the DB admin) can choose to turn off. The MySQL root account will also run with a blank password when you first install it from, say, Synaptic. It's up to you to tighten it down.
I'm sure the executives started the whipping sessions with the person responsible for allowing SQL Server to function happily with a blank 'sa' password.
This is the kind of thing that will probably be proven wrong next week when the next next big thing will be announced.
.
[1] Actually an urban legend, but close enough to the feeling at the time.