that the average person isn't as smart as the average/. reader Do you read the posts on slashdot? The average Slash reader is a regurgitating moron who doesn't have an original thought in his/her head. There are many brilliant people here (I am not one of them) but they are far overshadowed by the trolls/zealots (which as far as I am concerned are about equal). Just because people may have had other things to accomplish in their lives before someone decided that we all had to be online to count for anything does not mean that they are not intelligent people. I mean come on everyone was a newbie at some point, NOONE is born with some innate ability to code perl. It's time you people got off your collective high-horses and realized the REAL problem with AOL, that being the fact that they will be supplying content to some 35 million people by the end of this year. *sigh*/rant off _marc
My point was not RedHat in particular. But why they started has nothing to do with who they are now. They are currently a business with responsibilities to their stockholders. You can be damn sure that they care about making money and building the communities trust. Otherwise they would NOT have IPO'ed in the first place.
If RedHat did try to close everything up, nevermind the fact that they can't actually do this because they didn't write all, or even most of the code,
In this hypothetical situation, who is going to stop them?
create a new, OPEN, distro that offers all the same features as RedHat's distro, but has the added advantage of being open,
Sorry but I have yet to meet a manager that gives a damn about OPEN. There is a reason that MS is still selling products. Obviously not because they are better, and not because there are no alternatives, but because they are there at all. Everyone knows that MS will be around for a while and even if DOJ broke them up, there would still be a company there to support them.
If such a hypothetical situation did occur, a new Distro would be right where the small distro's are now, fighting for there 3% against the RedHat 80%. (And let me note again that I am not accusing or implying anything about RedHat I am just using them as an example, you could exchange RedHat for any other Distro in any of these posts)
Take out RedHat and insert [Any Major Linux Distro] and you could have the same thing. Especially with stocks falling investors will get very upset about non-positive earnings. One or more of the Distro's may try just that approach.
You're right the code they had already released. However if RedHat was a heavy player competing on a Sun/Apple/MS level, people would gladly pay for the "upgrades" etc....AND since the GPL has not been tested in court it would be unlikely to have any effect on RedHat. And since there were no other Linux companies to compete, who are you going to get any Linux Distro from? Actually you don't matter, where is Fortune 500 Company 2005 going to get all of their Software from? Not from Joe Hacker but from Big respected Proven RedHat. (I am not saying that RedHat is acting like this just using them as an example) Now you have an MS of the Linux world. But maybe it won't be Linux anymore, maybe it will be *gasp* RedHatOS. Suddenly RedHat has a hold on the market and Linux goes back to being a hacker's toy. Then it will be time for Revux `;^).
"Hmmm under this definition, Linux is NOT proprietary. It's not private, not exclusively owned, not owned by a private individual or corporation under a trademark or patent..."
Red Hat, the Red Hat "Shadow Man" logo, RPM, Maximum RPM, the RPM logo, Linux Library, PowerTools, Linux Undercover, RHmember, RHmember More, Rough Cuts, Rawhide and all Red Hat-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Maybe this is what he was talking about? What if RedHat became THE Linux Distro that everyone used? Couldn't they at some point say damn the GPL our stuff is our stuff? (a stretch I know but this is probably what is feared).
That's the most ridiculous comparison I have ever seen. GPL violation != MSEULA violation in ANY way. How did you get the MS source? You can't legally unless you sign an NDA of some kind so you would be violating a completely different set of rules. Also since you do not "sell" GPL'd code, damages will be very hard to prove, as opposed to closed source which could be construed as damaging to the authoring company (e.g. Norton V. MCaffee) Just couldn't get through a story without mentioning MS could you?
Then what example needs to be made? All you seem to have done is whip slashdot into a frenzy that I'm sure will cause more than a few hate mails to arrive in someones inbox at BE. This company would need to be made an example of if they refused to do anything about their violations. Instead you have treated them like children, going and shouting to the rest of the class, "Hey guys hey guys Johnny isn't playing fair!!". This story should NOT have come out the way it did.
I haven't seen any proof that they have actually violated the *GPL yet..(If there is any let me know and I will gladly retract the previous statements...)
Unfortunately, in most small to medium size businesses, noone takes the rap. Instead a consulting firm is brought in to solve the problems. (Lucky for us this usually involves firing people and bringing in our own that we can trust) I find it amazing who is getting hired nowadays to administer mission-critical servers. I would say 60% of the people I meet on sites aren't qualified to administer the fries at McDonald's, let alone a linux or NT box. So unfortunately you ARE going to have a lot of people Waiting for RedHat.
But if the average user has become more "user than coder", I think you are gonna see more users waiting for a bug fix from RedHat or whoever. Now true maybe these people shouldn't be administering Linux, but tell that to some supervisor after his machine has been cracked because his or her Linux admin couldn't "*fix it themselves*".
Why has this been moderated up so high? This person is stating a blatant falsehood, as the bug s/he is referring to had a workaround the same day. Microsoft releases hot-fixes all the time if you pay attention to lists like ntbugtraq. Moderators stop encouraging flame wars.
Obviously you have never heard of Liver, skin or the other types of cancer that exist. One of the worst being Leukemia which strikes randomly. Or how about esophagle(sp) cancer that my friend is dying of? Yeah he really lived it up not smoking or drinking his whole life.
Slashdot Mirror
The $1,000 cap is for a candidate I think. You can give as much as you want to the DNC its the same as buying lobbyists. I may be wrong though.
You know this is the funniest shit all night moderate it up.
Yes upgrade your computer to something that was built in the 90's and get some software along with it so you can read formatted text.
Asshole.
"Gee George, there's no riots in Miami today, and Elian is hidden from us."
"I got it Mike, let's play speculation!"
"Yeah ok......I got one, Elian spotted at local McDonald's sexually harassing female employees."
"How about, New evidence points that the trenchcoat Mafia was worshipping Satan while listening to Brittany Spears before shooting up Columbine."
"No how about an MS breakup speculation...here we go, People familiar with the case have said........
Sorry all this circle talk is driving me loopy.
that the average person isn't as smart as the average /. reader Do you read the posts on slashdot? The average Slash reader is a regurgitating moron who doesn't have an original thought in his/her head. There are many brilliant people here (I am not one of them) but they are far overshadowed by the trolls/zealots (which as far as I am concerned are about equal). Just because people may have had other things to accomplish in their lives before someone decided that we all had to be online to count for anything does not mean that they are not intelligent people. I mean come on everyone was a newbie at some point, NOONE is born with some innate ability to code perl. It's time you people got off your collective high-horses and realized the REAL problem with AOL, that being the fact that they will be supplying content to some 35 million people by the end of this year. *sigh*/rant off _marc
-Marc
In this hypothetical situation, who is going to stop them?
create a new, OPEN, distro that offers all the same features as RedHat's distro, but has the added advantage of being open,
Sorry but I have yet to meet a manager that gives a damn about OPEN. There is a reason that MS is still selling products. Obviously not because they are better, and not because there are no alternatives, but because they are there at all. Everyone knows that MS will be around for a while and even if DOJ broke them up, there would still be a company there to support them.
If such a hypothetical situation did occur, a new Distro would be right where the small distro's are now, fighting for there 3% against the RedHat 80%. (And let me note again that I am not accusing or implying anything about RedHat I am just using them as an example, you could exchange RedHat for any other Distro in any of these posts)
Marc
Take out RedHat and insert [Any Major Linux Distro] and you could have the same thing. Especially with stocks falling investors will get very upset about non-positive earnings. One or more of the Distro's may try just that approach.
-Marc
From Redhat.com
Red Hat, the Red Hat "Shadow Man" logo, RPM, Maximum RPM, the RPM logo, Linux Library, PowerTools, Linux Undercover, RHmember, RHmember More, Rough Cuts, Rawhide and all Red Hat-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Maybe this is what he was talking about? What if RedHat became THE Linux Distro that everyone used? Couldn't they at some point say damn the GPL our stuff is our stuff? (a stretch I know but this is probably what is feared).
-Marc
thanks for informing without flaming
-Marc
Moderate the above back down as flamebait.
Then what example needs to be made? All you seem to have done is whip slashdot into a frenzy that I'm sure will cause more than a few hate mails to arrive in someones inbox at BE. This company would need to be made an example of if they refused to do anything about their violations. Instead you have treated them like children, going and shouting to the rest of the class, "Hey guys hey guys Johnny isn't playing fair!!". This story should NOT have come out the way it did.
-Marc
Flame all you want....I'll Post more
Did they say no?
What rule have they broken then?
I haven't seen any proof that they have actually violated the *GPL yet..(If there is any let me know and I will gladly retract the previous statements...)
-Marc
What does John Grisham have to do with this?
-Marc
"Honey it was a great deal all 3 plus a bonus movie for $50!!!!"
MS's hotfixes and service packs are also free.
YOUR ignorance also borders on FUD.
Unfortunately, in most small to medium size businesses, noone takes the rap. Instead a consulting firm is brought in to solve the problems. (Lucky for us this usually involves firing people and bringing in our own that we can trust) I find it amazing who is getting hired nowadays to administer mission-critical servers. I would say 60% of the people I meet on sites aren't qualified to administer the fries at McDonald's, let alone a linux or NT box. So unfortunately you ARE going to have a lot of people Waiting for RedHat.
Why has this been moderated up so high? This person is stating a blatant falsehood, as the bug s/he is referring to had a workaround the same day. Microsoft releases hot-fixes all the time if you pay attention to lists like ntbugtraq. Moderators stop encouraging flame wars.
The correct term is retrovirus.
-marc
Obviously you have never heard of Liver, skin or the other types of cancer that exist. One of the worst being Leukemia which strikes randomly. Or how about esophagle(sp) cancer that my friend is dying of? Yeah he really lived it up not smoking or drinking his whole life.
Here is a little more recent set of numbers for MS, HP, IBM, Oracle, Apple and some others.
It even talks about Bill's personal charity foundation.
-Marc