99% of students aren't going to actively be trying to tinker with their software or have the desire to learn different platforms on their own. Is it in the best interest of the student to endanger their employability by choosing software that doesn't give them the opportunitiy to learn the specific skills demanded by business?
Teaching them to work in a specific make of software may or may not endanger their employability - depending on whether the same make is used or not at the point when they actually finish school and set out to find a job.
Teaching them to think, how to keep learning and eliminating their fear from change, however, is in the students' best interest.
School should not prepare students for this or that business; there are too many businesses in the world, and each has its own specific demands. That's what on-the-job training is for.
Schools are supposed to equip students with the knowledge how to adapt and how to learn.
That's what's in the students' best interest. Needless to say, that's not what's in the best interest of businesses.
To make a computer analogy, should students be introduced to programming using Lisp? For the sake of learning programming it is applicable, however, for the sake of portability of knowledge, most likely they would have to learn something more popular. So why not just start off with what is more popular?
Actually, they should. Lisp or any other language which forces them to adopt some healthy practices.
They can then learn any other language easily, if they ever need it.
Except for linking to GNU libraries, of which I know very little anyway since I'm no programmer (yet), from what I know, your problems do not exist.
Namely, you can run proprietary code on Linux. For instance, nVidia and ATI provide proprietary kernel drivers (though with something like that may be problems in GPL 3; however Linux will in all probability remain GPL 2). Adobe provides it Acrobat Reader for Linux and so on and so forth. No problem there.
As long as you do not use any code under a GPL license, you're home free; no-one[1] can force you to publish your source code.
That is not to say that people here wouldn't prefer you to make your project an OpenSource one, but most of us here realize you have to make a living.
I do not know why you'd want to obfuscate your code anyway; it would only make your code harder to read - to you. I don't see why you couldn't encrypt binaries, though.
And yes, going with BSD would completely eliminate your problems (mostly non-existent as they are anyway) - and would even allow you to include all the code in your proprietary program, which you may or may not need.
[1] Well, maybe a few guys with rubber hose pipes or something...
Even without new frontiers and warfare styles, you can really not predict anything.
The analyses performed at the outset of the war in Croatia predicted total defeat of the practically non-existent and unarmed Croatian army in mere days.
Ooops.
You can never factor in everything. And sometimes, things can turn over faster than the weather.
Besides, counting pure firepower, the US not only has the ability to totally destroy Iraq, it has the ability to destroy the world three times over. And yet...
While generally on the right track, I do think you're being a trifle... idealistic.
More often than not, you will calculate how much it would cost in both time and money to make a port to Linux. Either if you do it yourself or if you pay another programmer to do it.
Remember, you have a school and you need the software.
Then you compare that cost with the cost of software and accompanying Windows licences.
Then you see that the latter is a lower and apparently more hassle-free one and you decide to run Windows instead.
There is the other case, too, where you already have a Windows network and would like to switch to Linux - but all your software already runs on Windows. No go there, either.
All in all, the salesman and the company in question will not suffer any negative consequences even from your better piece of software until there is strong incentive for other schools to switch to Linux. Which is created not only by your program (BTW, did you remember to write multiplatform code?), but also by dozens of other programs, all of which have to be of at least equal quality. And by which time the company will have adapted Linux as one of thir target platforms.
Mind you, I'm a Linux fanboy. I'm just not delusional.
And I'm thinking of running a high school some day, so the problems here are not unknown to me.
This brings us to another problem of computer classes: kids don't actually get enough time with different programs.
When my father bought a computer some two years ago, I installed both Windows and Linux on it.
Then I installed gtypist in Linux to give him the very basics of the keyboard and introduced him to AisleRiot and Solitaire to teach him how to use the mouse.
Then he wanted to know something about word processing and spreadsheets. I gave him OpenOffice, but the basics of word processing I showed him in WordPad and let him toy with the text for a while.
Of course, every time I explained a command to him, I explained what it does and why it's there; there are some problems sometimes because he is no longer that proficient in English, and not all programs are translated to Croatian (and those that are are sometimes horribly done).
As for working with either OS, I told him he could not screw up the system (limited accounts) and he should feel free to experiment.
I have yet to teach him some command line work, but that's about it...
The net result is that he himself reached the conclusion that 'it's all the same, really'. And most of the time he prefers Ubuntu to Windows.
That may partially be because I'd told him Linux was safer to surf from, but his girlfriend uses Linux because AisleRiot is a much better solitaire program than Solitaire. Now that is a killer app.
That's all fine and dandy, but you forget about one teeny little aspect: the cost.
In the case of a court order etc. - of course they will spend the man-hours to get rid of the data. Doing so every time someone requested their data be deleted, they'd soon be doing nothing else.
OTOH, the whole population of India would have a job for at least a year.
Well, technically, the prophecy "and neither can live while the other survives" does not, in fact, claim that only one will die. It only says that at least one must die.
Luckily, this spoiler changed nothing for me; I thought that would happen ever since I read the first book.
Which is why I don't believe it all that much, really.
Only after the last song has been sung
Only after the last novel has been written
Only after the last film has been filmed
Only then will you find out that money gets quite boring to look at.
'Moron' was just a placeholder word I used to represent a general feeling/attitude; people attending LinuxTag will probably think of better texts. They still have a week or so... I'd probably go with a picture of his face, crossed with a red line or two, and the inscription 'Firewalled.'
But I don't speak German, so I couldn't suggest anything really good.
P.S. Politics is the one area where I assume malice by default. Stupidity is in the hands of voters; politicians themselves are malicious.
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On the other hand, if even kernel modules can be proprietary, he has nothing to fear from making a completely userspace closed source program.
I admit kernel modules are an extreme case - that's exactly why I'd put them in.
Teaching them to work in a specific make of software may or may not endanger their employability - depending on whether the same make is used or not at the point when they actually finish school and set out to find a job.
Teaching them to think, how to keep learning and eliminating their fear from change, however, is in the students' best interest.
School should not prepare students for this or that business; there are too many businesses in the world, and each has its own specific demands. That's what on-the-job training is for.
Schools are supposed to equip students with the knowledge how to adapt and how to learn.
That's what's in the students' best interest. Needless to say, that's not what's in the best interest of businesses.
Actually, they should. Lisp or any other language which forces them to adopt some healthy practices.
They can then learn any other language easily, if they ever need it.
Except for linking to GNU libraries, of which I know very little anyway since I'm no programmer (yet), from what I know, your problems do not exist.
Namely, you can run proprietary code on Linux. For instance, nVidia and ATI provide proprietary kernel drivers (though with something like that may be problems in GPL 3; however Linux will in all probability remain GPL 2). Adobe provides it Acrobat Reader for Linux and so on and so forth. No problem there.
As long as you do not use any code under a GPL license, you're home free; no-one[1] can force you to publish your source code.
That is not to say that people here wouldn't prefer you to make your project an OpenSource one, but most of us here realize you have to make a living.
I do not know why you'd want to obfuscate your code anyway; it would only make your code harder to read - to you. I don't see why you couldn't encrypt binaries, though.
And yes, going with BSD would completely eliminate your problems (mostly non-existent as they are anyway) - and would even allow you to include all the code in your proprietary program, which you may or may not need.
[1] Well, maybe a few guys with rubber hose pipes or something...
Even without new frontiers and warfare styles, you can really not predict anything.
The analyses performed at the outset of the war in Croatia predicted total defeat of the practically non-existent and unarmed Croatian army in mere days.
Ooops.
You can never factor in everything. And sometimes, things can turn over faster than the weather.
Besides, counting pure firepower, the US not only has the ability to totally destroy Iraq, it has the ability to destroy the world three times over. And yet...
While generally on the right track, I do think you're being a trifle... idealistic.
More often than not, you will calculate how much it would cost in both time and money to make a port to Linux. Either if you do it yourself or if you pay another programmer to do it.
Remember, you have a school and you need the software.
Then you compare that cost with the cost of software and accompanying Windows licences.
Then you see that the latter is a lower and apparently more hassle-free one and you decide to run Windows instead.
There is the other case, too, where you already have a Windows network and would like to switch to Linux - but all your software already runs on Windows. No go there, either.
All in all, the salesman and the company in question will not suffer any negative consequences even from your better piece of software until there is strong incentive for other schools to switch to Linux. Which is created not only by your program (BTW, did you remember to write multiplatform code?), but also by dozens of other programs, all of which have to be of at least equal quality. And by which time the company will have adapted Linux as one of thir target platforms.
Mind you, I'm a Linux fanboy. I'm just not delusional.
And I'm thinking of running a high school some day, so the problems here are not unknown to me.
This brings us to another problem of computer classes: kids don't actually get enough time with different programs.
When my father bought a computer some two years ago, I installed both Windows and Linux on it.
Then I installed gtypist in Linux to give him the very basics of the keyboard and introduced him to AisleRiot and Solitaire to teach him how to use the mouse.
Then he wanted to know something about word processing and spreadsheets. I gave him OpenOffice, but the basics of word processing I showed him in WordPad and let him toy with the text for a while.
Of course, every time I explained a command to him, I explained what it does and why it's there; there are some problems sometimes because he is no longer that proficient in English, and not all programs are translated to Croatian (and those that are are sometimes horribly done).
As for working with either OS, I told him he could not screw up the system (limited accounts) and he should feel free to experiment.
I have yet to teach him some command line work, but that's about it...
The net result is that he himself reached the conclusion that 'it's all the same, really'. And most of the time he prefers Ubuntu to Windows.
That may partially be because I'd told him Linux was safer to surf from, but his girlfriend uses Linux because AisleRiot is a much better solitaire program than Solitaire. Now that is a killer app.
That's all fine and dandy, but you forget about one teeny little aspect: the cost.
In the case of a court order etc. - of course they will spend the man-hours to get rid of the data. Doing so every time someone requested their data be deleted, they'd soon be doing nothing else.
OTOH, the whole population of India would have a job for at least a year.
Nice theory.
In practice, passwords are crackable.
Especially since I don't think an average person would use a 1024-bit key just to log in to some web account.
My passwords aren't that bad, but they're quite certainly crackable by brute force in a relatively short while.
Well, technically, the prophecy "and neither can live while the other survives" does not, in fact, claim that only one will die. It only says that at least one must die.
Luckily, this spoiler changed nothing for me; I thought that would happen ever since I read the first book.
Which is why I don't believe it all that much, really.
Therefore, poor TiVo can bitch and moan that Stallman & Co. are out to get them.
Which is what they're doing.
Surprise, surprise.
And they got multiple orgasms.
Though most probably not from those who spend their time writing their name in the snow.
Excuse me, but where's the problem?
I thought this! was! Slashdooooot! where no-one ever reads the articles anyway.
No scripts would be needed if you just behaved like any other Slashdotter.
Actually, artificially-made diamonds are rather cheap.
What is more, if the price of 'real' diamonds weren't artificially (sic!) kept high, they too would be cheap as dirt.
My guess, though, is that only man-made diamonds would be suitable for that, just like rubies for lasers - they're cleaner.
I drink my tea pure.
It simply needs nothing else.
Milk might ruin it - and it sure would ruin it for me.
Lactose intolerant or somesuch crap.
Then again, tea, along with chocolate, is one of my little vices; I don't overdo either, but I buy the good and (naturally) expensive stuff.
So, I just need a 2nd level spell?
Two spell slots just for going out... what is this world coming to?
And then you need to take a seeing-eye dog as a familiar, too... sheesh.
So I wonder: what will the future of adblocking be like?
I didn't know you Albanians even had Internet access...
Praise the FSM!
Ramen.
I guess sudoing would be OK as well...
Oh, wait...
Well, I have seen ads for stockings with MicroSoft fibers...
Only after the last song has been sung
Only after the last novel has been written
Only after the last film has been filmed
Only then will you find out that money gets quite boring to look at.
Add to all that that genetic sequences have been patented already... just wait until someone is executed for patent violation...
I do wonder what the next culture will be like... and how long it'll take until it reaches this point again...
Is this one of the ways a culture can commit suicide?
Mod parent way up.
Agreed.
'Moron' was just a placeholder word I used to represent a general feeling/attitude; people attending LinuxTag will probably think of better texts. They still have a week or so... I'd probably go with a picture of his face, crossed with a red line or two, and the inscription 'Firewalled.'
But I don't speak German, so I couldn't suggest anything really good.
P.S. Politics is the one area where I assume malice by default. Stupidity is in the hands of voters; politicians themselves are malicious.