Yes, I realize this is a Troll, but I still feel the need to respond with a "real world example" of why driver licensing is an issue.
Back when I was an intern we ran into a bug in the driver for a video card and reported it to the vendor. My supervisor's conversation with the vendor went something like this:
Us: "We need you to fix this bug."
Them: "Sorry, that card is considered obsolete and is no longer supported."
Us: "If you send us the source, we can fix it ourselves."
Them: "Sorry, we don't give out the source to our drivers. Driver source code is copyrighted and a valuable trade secret."
Us: "But you just said the card was obsolete."
Them: "The code is still valuable, and we can't give it out."
Us: "We're perfectly willing to sign an NDA."
Them: "I'm sorry, we can't give you the source."
...and it went on a bit from there, but never really went anywhere. So we had to go with different hardware. This was long before I'd ever heard of the GPL, bu had the drivers been released under that license, we wouldn't have had to depend on the vendor's continued good will to keep the hardware functional. This doesn't matter for the vast majority of people, but the people who care about such things really care about such things.
By the way, if you're going to cite statistics please indicate the source of your numbers. I give little credence to anyone who rattles off a list of numbers that allegedly came from "SEVERAL INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INSTITUTES." Stats without information on versions, configurations, and testing methods are largely meaningless. Without access to the source studies, your claims are unverifiable and could very well be fictional. Access to the source is very important to many of us.
Here's what you need to remember: Blackhole lists do not prevent a single email from reaching your email servers. Your ISP must voluntarily choose to follow the recommendations of the list publisher. If the blacklist is run properly and responsibly, then it provides a valuable service to its subscribers. If your ISP subscribes to a blacklist whose admin has run amok and blocks someone you want to hear from, complain to your ISP for letting some overzealous pinhead with no accountability decide which IP addresses are evil. If enough paying customers complain, the ISP will dump the black hole list. If you run your own email server, then none of this affects you anyway.
The black hole effect works both ways. If the value of legitimate communications from TDE is greater than the inconvenience caused by the spam, then the AHBL will quickly find itself losing subscribers and influence. Otherwise, perhaps TDE will decide it's worth the trouble to implement an AUP that will make accepting traffic from its network worthwhile.
Another reason it will be ineffective: as the students catch just one of the self-serving lies, they will forever be distrustful for the entire. program.
But in school I learned "If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it." What, I don't have to go to the music store to get music legally? Why did they tell me that then?
In the long run, this could be a good thing. When kids learn that the same people who taught them that making mix CDs is illegal claim that P2P networks should be outlawed and that casual copying hurts sales, they're going to be more likely to be skeptical.
A footnote on drugs: I was one of those kids who carried around the DARE card back in school, and I had no desire to try drugs until I realized the extent to which I'd been lied to (both explicitly and by omission) by the various anti-drug progams at school.
It's a wonderful thing that Mr. Claiborne has stepped down, leaving the position open for someone who actually believes in the principles of free software. If your continued support of GPL software is contingent on it only being used by those you agree with, then take a walk. Go make your own software and slap on a license that forbids use in military applications.
I'm sure lots of nasty people use Linux. Of course the point is that anyone can use Linux, as long as they abide by the GPL.
"Software should be free...except for you. And you. Oh, and you. OK, and maybe that guy over there too. Fsck it, just cut and paste from the MS EULA."
As far as I'm concerned, this makes the whole article suspect and his conclusions irrelevant. His entire claim could be fictitious. There is no reason for him to keep secret the identity of the sound card and each of the distributions he tried. His claims cannot be verified, his experiment cannot be replicated. Because he's not making a verificable claim, there's no effective way of defending against it. Which is OK, I don't think people should be wasting their time defending Linux against unverifiable claims.
The article basically says: "Linux sucks because it couldn't do this thing I wanted it to do, but I won't tell anyone what that thing is."
Y'know, I've run into that situation before with routers here. Whoever it was who set the thing up left the company without passing on the info. There's a solution that doesn't involve leaving your customers bent and spread for any insider who knows the secret knock. I push a button, hold it for several seconds until the little red light stops blinking, and the device is reset to the factory defaults.
If I don't remember my login, then I'm the idiot.
If I don't backup or somehow record my device config, then I'm the idiot.
If there's a price to pay for being an idiot, I'm less likely to be an idiot repeatedly.
Sacrificing the security of all of your customers to protect some of them from paying the price of their idiocy is not acceptable.
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Yes, I realize this is a Troll, but I still feel the need to respond with a "real world example" of why driver licensing is an issue.
...and it went on a bit from there, but never really went anywhere. So we had to go with different hardware. This was long before I'd ever heard of the GPL, bu had the drivers been released under that license, we wouldn't have had to depend on the vendor's continued good will to keep the hardware functional. This doesn't matter for the vast majority of people, but the people who care about such things really care about such things.
Back when I was an intern we ran into a bug in the driver for a video card and reported it to the vendor. My supervisor's conversation with the vendor went something like this:
Us: "We need you to fix this bug."
Them: "Sorry, that card is considered obsolete and is no longer supported."
Us: "If you send us the source, we can fix it ourselves."
Them: "Sorry, we don't give out the source to our drivers. Driver source code is copyrighted and a valuable trade secret."
Us: "But you just said the card was obsolete." Them: "The code is still valuable, and we can't give it out." Us: "We're perfectly willing to sign an NDA."
Them: "I'm sorry, we can't give you the source."
By the way, if you're going to cite statistics please indicate the source of your numbers. I give little credence to anyone who rattles off a list of numbers that allegedly came from "SEVERAL INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INSTITUTES." Stats without information on versions, configurations, and testing methods are largely meaningless. Without access to the source studies, your claims are unverifiable and could very well be fictional. Access to the source is very important to many of us.
Here's what you need to remember: Blackhole lists do not prevent a single email from reaching your email servers. Your ISP must voluntarily choose to follow the recommendations of the list publisher. If the blacklist is run properly and responsibly, then it provides a valuable service to its subscribers. If your ISP subscribes to a blacklist whose admin has run amok and blocks someone you want to hear from, complain to your ISP for letting some overzealous pinhead with no accountability decide which IP addresses are evil. If enough paying customers complain, the ISP will dump the black hole list. If you run your own email server, then none of this affects you anyway.
The black hole effect works both ways. If the value of legitimate communications from TDE is greater than the inconvenience caused by the spam, then the AHBL will quickly find itself losing subscribers and influence. Otherwise, perhaps TDE will decide it's worth the trouble to implement an AUP that will make accepting traffic from its network worthwhile.
Another reason it will be ineffective: as the students catch just one of the self-serving lies, they will forever be distrustful for the entire. program.
But in school I learned "If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it." What, I don't have to go to the music store to get music legally? Why did they tell me that then?
In the long run, this could be a good thing. When kids learn that the same people who taught them that making mix CDs is illegal claim that P2P networks should be outlawed and that casual copying hurts sales, they're going to be more likely to be skeptical.
A footnote on drugs: I was one of those kids who carried around the DARE card back in school, and I had no desire to try drugs until I realized the extent to which I'd been lied to (both explicitly and by omission) by the various anti-drug progams at school.
It's a wonderful thing that Mr. Claiborne has stepped down, leaving the position open for someone who actually believes in the principles of free software. If your continued support of GPL software is contingent on it only being used by those you agree with, then take a walk. Go make your own software and slap on a license that forbids use in military applications.
I'm sure lots of nasty people use Linux. Of course the point is that anyone can use Linux, as long as they abide by the GPL.
"Software should be free...except for you. And you. Oh, and you. OK, and maybe that guy over there too. Fsck it, just cut and paste from the MS EULA."
As far as I'm concerned, this makes the whole article suspect and his conclusions irrelevant. His entire claim could be fictitious. There is no reason for him to keep secret the identity of the sound card and each of the distributions he tried. His claims cannot be verified, his experiment cannot be replicated. Because he's not making a verificable claim, there's no effective way of defending against it. Which is OK, I don't think people should be wasting their time defending Linux against unverifiable claims. The article basically says: "Linux sucks because it couldn't do this thing I wanted it to do, but I won't tell anyone what that thing is."
Y'know, I've run into that situation before with routers here. Whoever it was who set the thing up left the company without passing on the info. There's a solution that doesn't involve leaving your customers bent and spread for any insider who knows the secret knock. I push a button, hold it for several seconds until the little red light stops blinking, and the device is reset to the factory defaults.
If I don't remember my login, then I'm the idiot.
If I don't backup or somehow record my device config, then I'm the idiot.
If there's a price to pay for being an idiot, I'm less likely to be an idiot repeatedly.
Sacrificing the security of all of your customers to protect some of them from paying the price of their idiocy is not acceptable.