Yesterday, I got pretty wound up with a post made advising someone to use BSD code for their wireless drivers as 1) GPL'd code would magically turn their whole OS GPL and 2) the GPL'd code was probably originally BSD but had been co-opted. To say the least, this really ticked me off! The post I made in reply was quite inflammatory (it was deleted and quite rightly so) but my point still remains. I find such drumming up of bad feelings in the open source world extremely detrimental and find it quite abhorrent, not to mention counter productive.
How do you people feel about this? Hopefully, I'm not alone in these sentiments.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
It reminds me of all the Christian denominations who fight oveer a word in a creed, or over an interpretation over one verse. To the rest of the world, it looks absolutely childish. The same is true of some of the "religious" battles over licenses, or over interpretations of one of Father Richard's 4 commandments. It looks pretty goofy to the rest of the world.
Member since:2006-12-28
Lol! Pretty good analogy, nice one.
It always ends up either angering me or getting me down. The sheer uselessness of the argument just ends up boggling the mind!
One thing I could understand is if BSD code was regularly co-opted by GPL project but the only time I have heard of this happening, it was quickly fixed. Respect for the BSD licenses is very high in the GPL world and the re-licensing of BSD code is severally frowned upon so I don't really understand where this animosity comes from.
I do understand that re-licensing BSD software as GPL seems more of a betrayal than using it for a closed source project as in the end, the license and copyright must be included with that project.
As for the flip side, I have heard more than one (but one more than others) complain about the BSDs as if they where some kind of sellouts. Frankly, I can't understand how people who want to give away their code with less restrictions could be considered sellouts.
Member since:
2005-06-29
Well, you did get wound up over it, didn't you? In what sense are you better or worse than the original poster...?
I'm not trying to be a dick here, just pointing out that getting worked up over it is exactly what a troll wants. In other words, he succeeded.
It's just a comment on a stupid web page. Nothing more, nothing less.
Member since:2006-12-28
If that's how you feel about it, fair enough but it neither answers my question of negates my right to feel otherwise about it.
You may feel that feeding a troll is what they want but oft times these people don't even realize they are trolling. I've found that usually, all these people need is a good slapping. As I'm not standing in front of him, I felt a bit of verbal abuse was in order ;-p
Oh, and I believe I did mention flipping out. I'm not trying to be a dick but, although totally unnecessary, thanks for pointing it out again.
Member since:
2005-07-24
I feel that it is ten times easier to make enemies than friends, and that one enemy can do more damage than ten friends can make up for. And that, consequently, the zealots in any camp are, ultimately, that camp's worst liabilities. Which is actually an argument for the revival of ritual sacrifice. But that's for another thread...
Member since:2006-12-28
"The Samsung Galaxy One Tablet Projector Concept is a combination of three characteristics from three different devices. It has the lightness and mobility of tablets, the widescreen of desktops backed with the power of a laptop. With the inclusion of a back kick-stand and projector, the device gets additional functionality and of course Windows 8!" I'm throwing money at my screen but nothing's happening.
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"The widely anticipated two-day meeting between chief executives of Samsung and Apple yielded no agreement between the parties mired in a hot legal dispute over copyright infringements." Why end fruitless litigation and spend that money on improving products or, I don't know, charity, when you could throw money at lawyers instead, to the benefit of absolutely no one? These lawsuits are Jobs' blemish on the company, but Apple can't back out now for fear of losing face, even though Cook has indicated he really wants to. Petty."Windows 8 has a problem â" it really can boot up too quickly. So quickly, in fact, that there is no longer time for anything to interrupt boot. When you turn on a Windows 8 PC, there's no longer long enough to detect keystrokes like F2 or F8, much less time to read a message such as 'Press F2 for Setup'. For the first time in decades, you will no longer be able to interrupt boot and tell your PC to do anything different than what it was already expecting to do. Fast booting is something we definitely want to preserve. Certainly no one would imagine intentionally slowing down boot to allow these functions to work as they did in the past. In this blog I'll walk through how we're addressing this 'problem' with new solutions that will keep your PC booting as quickly as possible, while still letting you do all the things you expect."
This is interesting news. According to WinUnleaked.tk, and given credence by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrot, Adobe has given Microsoft the source code to Flash, so that Microsoft could fully integrate it into Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8. Interesting move, and probably not a bad one considering just how popular Flash still is, especially for games.We've got some really good news for all of you: the jury verdict in the patent phase of the Oracle v. Google trial is in, and it's a unanimous one: no patent infringement. This means that the most Oracle could possibly get out of this is a few hundred thousand dollars if (and that's a very big if) judge Alsup rules that APIs are copyrightable. Oracle pretty much lost everything. Permit me to say, in your face, Ellison.
"Seagate this morning announced plans to acquire LaCie, a Paris-based producer of consumer data storage devices, for at least $186 million. Seagate said it has agreed to buy a 64.5% stake in LaCie held by Philippe Spruch, the company's chairman and CEO. On completion of that transaction, Seagate intends to made an all-cash tender offer for the rest of LaCie's shares."
"Just over two months ago, Chrome sponsored the Pwnium browser hacking competition. We had two fantastic submissions, and successfully blocked both exploits within 24 hours of their unveiling. Today, we'd like to offer an inside look into the exploit submitted by Pinkie Pie." A work of pure art, this. Also, this is not the same person as the other PinkiePie. Also also, you didn't think I'd let a story with a headline like this go by unnoticed, did you?
"Sure enough, a product listing provides a lot more detail about the tiny Chrome OS desktop than Samsung gave us in January, including its use of a 1.9GHz, dual-core Celeron B840, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 16GB solid-state drive and six (not five) USB ports. We haven't seen mention of the promised wireless keyboard and mouse bundle, although the retailer's configuration might reflect a stripped-down trim level: at $330, it's a lot less than the $400 we were quoted at the start of the year." A $400 ChromeOS desktop box? Good luck with that.Google CEO Larry Page: "It's a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound - as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That's why it's a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I'm confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come." Strong hint that the Motorola purchase isn't so much about current devices and patents as it is about acquiring the hardware know-how for the device form factors of the future."When Tudor Brown stepped down as president of ARM Holdings earlier this month, he left behind one of Britain's and indeed the world's, most successful technology companies." Thanks for a fantastic architecture. The technology world would be poorer for it without ARM.
