The haven't abandoned their ability to make money. The SCSL requies you to pay for commercial use of the product. At least that's what it says in the article linked at the top of this page.:)
So, the money they make from Solaris HAS NOT CHANGED. You can already "buy" a free copy of Solaris for personal use...it costs like $20 or something to get it shipped, but that's not much. All they've done is attempt to get the source code out there so that people can find and patch bugs.
I agree. First, Sun bought Star Office. Now, they're trying to release their OS as open source. Probably this is all a results of LInux fame. I still don't see this as some threat to Linux.
As much as it makes me uncomfortable, this is the type of situation where ESR's certification that a license is or is not truly derserving of the name Open Source(tm) is called for.
It would be easy, if there were an official set of criteria to measure by, for a group of people (say ESR's group) to say "This license is not open enought to get our label."
THis is true....but there won't be nearly the number of people looking for bugs (and fixing them) as if the license was more along the lines of BSD and/or GPL.
Solaris still isn't free. The license under which this source code is released is very prohibitive. According to the article, this will be released under a similar license as Java....which certainly isn't free (think speech) and Solaris will still cost money for commercial use which istn' free either (think beer).
Why is it that this happens so frequently in the midwest (i live in Michigan).
My company's T-1 line has been cut at least 3 times in the last 5 years.
This kind of thing could be a MAJOR problem as the internet becomes more important to big companies. I mean right now, sadly, it's still a novelty to many of the people in the world. But can you imagine the hell we'd be in for if everything travelled over the 'net and someone cut a big trunk like this? Yikes.
What they don't say is what apps and or OS this would be using.
The quote in the article is "anyone who would buy a laptop would buy one of these". That's not true in my opinion.
I'm not saying they're cool, and I'm not saying, as an uber-geek, I won't own one. But to make a blanket statement that people who buy laptops (my sister the computer illiterate as a good example) will buy these is a bit too optimistic.
Not to sound like Katz...but can you imagine the hardships some uber-geek has to put up with already. Add to that the thought that he/she is actually Autistic...and you can imagine people having a field day with it.
Point number 2 - At my fiance's school they routinely take kids (elementary) out of the "high" group and put them in the "low" group when they misbehave. Given that the misbehaviour is almost always a function of their boredom at the school moving too slowly, you have the smartest kids in the slowest moving academic circles. If you start lableing those kids as "Austistic" you give schools even further ability to move the smartest kids all the way into something like special ed. Potentially dangerous in my opinion.
THis is not entirely true. You've seen your friendly neighboorhood "National Forest" before I'm sure. Well, you might be suprised to learn what those forests are for. The actual purpose of National Forests is to sell those trees to people who need wood. I'm assuming that part of "people who need wood" is the paper companies. So while trees ARE a renewable resource, they're not renewed.
On another note however, I read just last week that the National Forest people are the only group in the country (private sectors included) that cut down more trees than they plant every year. So they're the biggest offenders anyway.
I trust neither. Which is why I agree with you too. At least we can elect (more or less) the government. Privatising everything takes control away from us and puts it into the hands of the pointy haired bosses! *gasp* The horror!:)
There is no way allowing business (or even worse, corporations) to fund education will do anything good. If you have schools paid for by big business, then big business gets to decide what's important to teach.
Heck...you'd think that paranoia-ladden slashdot-ites would realize that if business funded education any more than they already do, we'd already have lost the Linux vs. Microsoft war....because we'd all have been brainwashed since birth.
I use Linux because I enjoy it, not because it is "hack-proof"
Unfortunately, many companies DO use Linux because of it's relative security (when compared to NT). Even though we know that using a closed source CGI script isn't a fair way to test an open source OS, PC Week may not have known that...and the pointy-haired people who all just bought Red Hat stock might now have second thougths.
That's why it's important for some people to at least contest this sort of blatant falsehood publically. But how?
That's a great idea. There are several places XML is being used rather efficiently already. I know that that the Gnumeric spreadsheet program already stores its files in the XML format. This, to me, is one of the great things about XML....
I almost agree with you....EXCEPT that I remember the first time I used a Windows machine I couldn't find a text-editor to use without consulting a friend (same as a manual). The first time I used a MacOS box, couldn't find a text editor without searching through the menus. It's not any harder to find an editor in Linux (at least if you're using GNOME or KDE) to find a text editor for a first time user than it is in other OSes.
Linus' vision depends entirely on the success of open source software. There will ALWAYS be a need for constant upgrades while the proprietary software model reigns king.
I don't really care much about for-profit or not-for-profit motives, and I don't entirely subscribe to the FSF's moral obligation arguments....but I think the useless upgrade path created by MS is a great reason to get out and code....
So I'll cut this comment short...i've got code to write:)
I agree...enforcing many aspects of this law will be very difficult. However, tracking down the virus writer has already proven to be possile, and exciting for the media... remember the Melissa virus? That guy was tracked down like a dog.
Publicity stunt?! Why would they do something like that? Transmeta has been 100% mum about their company from day 1. We've certainly all been very vocal on the matter....but they've shown very little interest in publicity stunts to the best of my knowledge.
It's funny though. In the age of corporate memos leaking to the media, hype for everything from tacos to movies, Transmeta's (unintentionally?) pulled the greatest publicity stunt of all time: silence.
Slashdot Mirror
So, the money they make from Solaris HAS NOT CHANGED. You can already "buy" a free copy of Solaris for personal use...it costs like $20 or something to get it shipped, but that's not much. All they've done is attempt to get the source code out there so that people can find and patch bugs.
I agree. First, Sun bought Star Office. Now, they're trying to release their OS as open source. Probably this is all a results of LInux fame. I still don't see this as some threat to Linux.
It would be easy, if there were an official set of criteria to measure by, for a group of people (say ESR's group) to say "This license is not open enought to get our label."
THis is true....but there won't be nearly the number of people looking for bugs (and fixing them) as if the license was more along the lines of BSD and/or GPL.
Solaris still isn't free. The license under which this source code is released is very prohibitive. According to the article, this will be released under a similar license as Java....which certainly isn't free (think speech) and Solaris will still cost money for commercial use which istn' free either (think beer).
marvelous.
My company's T-1 line has been cut at least 3 times in the last 5 years.
This kind of thing could be a MAJOR problem as the internet becomes more important to big companies. I mean right now, sadly, it's still a novelty to many of the people in the world. But can you imagine the hell we'd be in for if everything travelled over the 'net and someone cut a big trunk like this? Yikes.
The quote in the article is "anyone who would buy a laptop would buy one of these". That's not true in my opinion.
I'm not saying they're cool, and I'm not saying, as an uber-geek, I won't own one. But to make a blanket statement that people who buy laptops (my sister the computer illiterate as a good example) will buy these is a bit too optimistic.
No it's the world's best caramel...
Actually it's not that. I promise. :)
Perhaps the best thing any of us could do is to switch pointer devices frequently....that would at least alleviate one wrist...
For me though, the pain is mainly typing-related.
Point number 2 - At my fiance's school they routinely take kids (elementary) out of the "high" group and put them in the "low" group when they misbehave. Given that the misbehaviour is almost always a function of their boredom at the school moving too slowly, you have the smartest kids in the slowest moving academic circles. If you start lableing those kids as "Austistic" you give schools even further ability to move the smartest kids all the way into something like special ed. Potentially dangerous in my opinion.
On another note however, I read just last week that the National Forest people are the only group in the country (private sectors included) that cut down more trees than they plant every year. So they're the biggest offenders anyway.
But I'm not so sure....there are literally hundreds of places around the US that use SS#s at identification...and 90% of the public never objects.
I find this truly frightening.
I trust neither. :)
Which is why I agree with you too. At least we can elect (more or less) the government. Privatising everything takes control away from us and puts it into the hands of the pointy haired bosses! *gasp* The horror!
There is no way allowing business (or even worse, corporations) to fund education will do anything good. If you have schools paid for by big business, then big business gets to decide what's important to teach.
Heck...you'd think that paranoia-ladden slashdot-ites would realize that if business funded education any more than they already do, we'd already have lost the Linux vs. Microsoft war....because we'd all have been brainwashed since birth.
It's all a matter of politics my friend. In that wonderful world, the word "Permanent" really only means about 6 months.
Holland?
You're BOTH missing it. Kalamazoo is OBVIOUSLY the capital of the Internet... at least we agree Michigan is the home of the capital of the internet :)
That's why it's important for some people to at least contest this sort of blatant falsehood publically. But how?
That's a great idea. There are several places XML is being used rather efficiently already. I know that that the Gnumeric spreadsheet program already stores its files in the XML format. This, to me, is one of the great things about XML....
I almost agree with you....EXCEPT that I remember the first time I used a Windows machine I couldn't find a text-editor to use without consulting a friend (same as a manual). The first time I used a MacOS box, couldn't find a text editor without searching through the menus. It's not any harder to find an editor in Linux (at least if you're using GNOME or KDE) to find a text editor for a first time user than it is in other OSes.
I don't really care much about for-profit or not-for-profit motives, and I don't entirely subscribe to the FSF's moral obligation arguments....but I think the useless upgrade path created by MS is a great reason to get out and code....
So I'll cut this comment short...i've got code to write :)
I agree...enforcing many aspects of this law will be very difficult. However, tracking down the virus writer has already proven to be possile, and exciting for the media ... remember the Melissa virus? That guy was tracked down like a dog.
It's funny though. In the age of corporate memos leaking to the media, hype for everything from tacos to movies, Transmeta's (unintentionally?) pulled the greatest publicity stunt of all time: silence.