Gee look at the MS shills left and right "It doesn't matter now, move on" and my favorite "These articles make us look immature".
MS violated the license, got called on it and were pressured to comply, then they go on to use the compliance as positive PR.
PR is important dammit, it help us build trust relationships, when PR is fudged everybody else loses, so it's important these kinds of spins get reported.
Can you count all the spin doctors using this to smear RMS as pushing "His (as in only his) Twisted (yes, ppl are using this word) Version of Free".
Essentially what RMS want us to avoid is a world where computers don't obey their owners.
Imagine a world where everybody can install a 5 years old version of Windows 7 that none the less, refuses to install VLC, puts secret IDs in your MSOffice documents, callbacks the RIAA to request permission every time you launch your Windows Media Player. etc.
And he has no legislative power, he doesn't act thought coercion but rather leads by example. His vocal because people need to be educated about software freedom, just like feminists need to educate people about gender inequality, just like ambientalists needed to educate the public about contamination before people started to demand changes.
Or how would you feel if facebook allied with a dozen other unrelated sites to discretely build psychological profiles on you? I was particularly offend wen I was presured to join a facebook ripoff, I entered mostly false data, and yet it already has a good idea of which my contacts were, it's sick.
Now excuse me I'm going to make another tin foil cap for my tin foild cap.
But if your only customers are megabanks that already have systems in place it is no wonder you go extinct like a panda, you only have one income source. Ok one income source can be sustainable if it is very large and stable, but a situation like this results in only one company making the money so it's probably IBM who took Sun out of business.
I'm pretty sure people who hate cursing don't react the same way.
I'm somehow in between, some times when I have to touch php4 or every single time I test my apps in IE6 I can't help but cursing at the damn fucking imitation of a browser (bug ridden bugger burn in hell already will ya?)
But.
When it comes to physical pain I just don't feel like cursing, at all. When I'm in pain I just try to control my breath and concentrate on withstanding it. In fact I can notice my though process doing some sort of damage assertion control, as if understanding the pain makes it hurt less. Words simply don't occur to me beyond "ouch" perhaps.
I'm not opposed to religion, but I strongly feel that its teachings should only be used in a philosophical context, and not -- for example -- for informing our actions w.r.t. the physical/natural world.
I beg your pardon but why should the teachings of religion have any value in philosophy? Compared with ancient Greek philosophy, let alone modern philosophy, religion is already just ignorant, unsophisticated, incongruent, biased, politicized, dishonest babble. Even the more philosophically inclined Asian religions are based not slightly in unfunded fantasies.
This is to be expected as these beliefs were created by men without any modern tools to gain insight into the nature of the world and the mind, without physics or psychology or even just reliable statistical surveys about the opinions of the population of their own countries, let alone data from international sources.
Religion is of no use today except for waging religious wars and even then it might not be absolutely necessary.
He's not talking about custom software, that a minority of user ever use. He's talking about software made for mass consumption like MS Office, its developers are, for the average user, completely unaccessible unlike, say, an Open Office developer.
I'm a programmer and even I have to admit that just thinking about contributing to a FOSS application is a PITA. There is a lot of boilerplate skill required to start contributing patches.
In general the process is something like this: Locate the source management system, whether it be hg, bazaar, git, svn, cvs, etc. or just plain tar ball Set up an IDE Set up a project in said IDE, this more or less includes setting up a source management system of your own. Find the piece of source you want to modify, this usually consist on either editing a button callback or extending a GUI form/window, some times even creating your own window. Generating a patch. Interface with the project's bug tracking system open a feature suggestion ticket and attach the patch.
Add to that that everybody uses a different language and libraries.
For most feature enhancements that a regular user would be willing to code himself the setup phase is way overkill.
The restrictions in the GPL make things more free by simply ensuring everybody has access to the code and its patents, "we" have already discussed that at nausea.
Or you got this brilliantly original idea that the GPL is somehow unfree?
Well that sounds much better, but as you say, if Covered Specifications can change it is still threat.
Also IANAL but I feel like I have to clarify why I think it affects your users too, if a piece of software is illegal to produce in the US due software patents use of that software becomes illegal too even if you didn't produce the software, so it seems that users too must hold a license to the patent.
You are not protected under the promise if you ever sue MS for patent infringement, so you are basically surrendering all of your --and all of your user's-- patent portfolio to them in exchange for an *incomplete* platform license.
I'm not aware that they hold enforceable swpats for more pedestrian things like database bindings
The Orwellian flavor of "swpats" is right on topic. Any other company will give you a license to use their patent, they don't. They give you a "promise not to use our necessary claims". As if using Mono is technically illegal but they are nice enough not to sue. Quite frankly DO NOT WANT
What is wrong with it being for sexual arousal and lacking plot? I understand it may be disgusting but if no one was hurt this should be covered by freedom of speech.
TFS only mentions the cost of cleaning Windows from malware, what about the cost of the malware attack itself? Personalities stolen, bank accounts emptied, privacies destroyed, files lost in locked hard disks or simply fubared.
Slashdot Mirror
Gee look at the MS shills left and right "It doesn't matter now, move on" and my favorite "These articles make us look immature".
MS violated the license, got called on it and were pressured to comply, then they go on to use the compliance as positive PR.
PR is important dammit, it help us build trust relationships, when PR is fudged everybody else loses, so it's important these kinds of spins get reported.
Parent wins, end of discussion.
Can you count all the spin doctors using this to smear RMS as pushing "His (as in only his) Twisted (yes, ppl are using this word) Version of Free".
Essentially what RMS want us to avoid is a world where computers don't obey their owners.
Imagine a world where everybody can install a 5 years old version of Windows 7 that none the less, refuses to install VLC, puts secret IDs in your MSOffice documents, callbacks the RIAA to request permission every time you launch your Windows Media Player. etc.
And he has no legislative power, he doesn't act thought coercion but rather leads by example. His vocal because people need to be educated about software freedom, just like feminists need to educate people about gender inequality, just like ambientalists needed to educate the public about contamination before people started to demand changes.
Glad to see a smarter politician in charge for once :)
Or how would you feel if facebook allied with a dozen other unrelated sites to discretely build psychological profiles on you? I was particularly offend wen I was presured to join a facebook ripoff, I entered mostly false data, and yet it already has a good idea of which my contacts were, it's sick.
Now excuse me I'm going to make another tin foil cap for my tin foild cap.
How does banks deal with blocking concurrency using clusters? wasn't the GP premise that banks need systems with great locking?
But if your only customers are megabanks that already have systems in place it is no wonder you go extinct like a panda, you only have one income source. Ok one income source can be sustainable if it is very large and stable, but a situation like this results in only one company making the money so it's probably IBM who took Sun out of business.
Right, now where do we find something to protect us against NoScript and its attempts to take control over our browsers?
I'm I the only one to notice that windows jumped from version 3 to 7 much like the american adaptations of Final Fantasy?
Look forward to Windows 7: Crisis Core, If you survive Windows 7: Dirge of Clippy
I'm pretty sure people who hate cursing don't react the same way.
I'm somehow in between, some times when I have to touch php4 or every single time I test my apps in IE6 I can't help but cursing at the damn fucking imitation of a browser (bug ridden bugger burn in hell already will ya?)
But.
When it comes to physical pain I just don't feel like cursing, at all. When I'm in pain I just try to control my breath and concentrate on withstanding it. In fact I can notice my though process doing some sort of damage assertion control, as if understanding the pain makes it hurt less. Words simply don't occur to me beyond "ouch" perhaps.
So it definitively varies across persons.
I'm not opposed to religion, but I strongly feel that its teachings should only be used in a philosophical context, and not -- for example -- for informing our actions w.r.t. the physical/natural world.
I beg your pardon but why should the teachings of religion have any value in philosophy? Compared with ancient Greek philosophy, let alone modern philosophy, religion is already just ignorant, unsophisticated, incongruent, biased, politicized, dishonest babble. Even the more philosophically inclined Asian religions are based not slightly in unfunded fantasies.
This is to be expected as these beliefs were created by men without any modern tools to gain insight into the nature of the world and the mind, without physics or psychology or even just reliable statistical surveys about the opinions of the population of their own countries, let alone data from international sources.
Religion is of no use today except for waging religious wars and even then it might not be absolutely necessary.
I don't know, with a 10,000 write limit If my brain was made of memristors I'd be terribly mortified.
The first place being xkcd
He's not talking about custom software, that a minority of user ever use. He's talking about software made for mass consumption like MS Office, its developers are, for the average user, completely unaccessible unlike, say, an Open Office developer.
I'm a programmer and even I have to admit that just thinking about contributing to a FOSS application is a PITA. There is a lot of boilerplate skill required to start contributing patches.
In general the process is something like this:
Locate the source management system, whether it be hg, bazaar, git, svn, cvs, etc. or just plain tar ball
Set up an IDE
Set up a project in said IDE, this more or less includes setting up a source management system of your own.
Find the piece of source you want to modify, this usually consist on either editing a button callback or extending a GUI form/window, some times even creating your own window.
Generating a patch.
Interface with the project's bug tracking system open a feature suggestion ticket and attach the patch.
Add to that that everybody uses a different language and libraries.
For most feature enhancements that a regular user would be willing to code himself the setup phase is way overkill.
Didn't you mean, "a fanatical devotion to the WIPOpe"?
The restrictions in the GPL make things more free by simply ensuring everybody has access to the code and its patents, "we" have already discussed that at nausea.
Or you got this brilliantly original idea that the GPL is somehow unfree?
Well that sounds much better, but as you say, if Covered Specifications can change it is still threat.
Also IANAL but I feel like I have to clarify why I think it affects your users too, if a piece of software is illegal to produce in the US due software patents use of that software becomes illegal too even if you didn't produce the software, so it seems that users too must hold a license to the patent.
You are not protected under the promise if you ever sue MS for patent infringement, so you are basically surrendering all of your --and all of your user's-- patent portfolio to them in exchange for an *incomplete* platform license.
I'm not aware that they hold enforceable swpats for more pedestrian things like database bindings
The Orwellian flavor of "swpats" is right on topic. Any other company will give you a license to use their patent, they don't. They give you a "promise not to use our necessary claims".
As if using Mono is technically illegal but they are nice enough not to sue.
Quite frankly
DO NOT WANT
If you ever see a hot moon rabbit just don't look her in the eye for your sanity's sake.
I see you are unfamiliar with the pirate ranking system, it's captains all the way down.
Walked right into that!
Noooooo, not that kind of hurt >_!!
What is wrong with it being for sexual arousal and lacking plot? I understand it may be disgusting but if no one was hurt this should be covered by freedom of speech.
TFS only mentions the cost of cleaning Windows from malware, what about the cost of the malware attack itself? Personalities stolen, bank accounts emptied, privacies destroyed, files lost in locked hard disks or simply fubared.
I'd add that to the TCO of Windows too!