"We have received an email claiming that the Kororaa Xgl Live CD is in violation of the GPL. I have been researching this as much as I can, asking many prominent people in the Linux world for their opinion. So far, no-one has agreed with the email, however a few have said to seek legal advice, which I cannot afford to do (but can't afford not to do, if I want to continue the Live CD). As such, the Live CD has been put on hold, until I can sort this out. If I cannot sort this out I will be forced to cease work on the Xgl Live CD."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-02-02
People have an option. They have the option to pay more for an nVidia/ATI board to gain something they don't need in the first place.
Intel graphics are good enough for most people's needs. They're even more than enough to run a fully accelerated X desktop.
Oh, now that's a level of arrogance I'm not letting slide.
Anyone who does 3d, or even 2d, graphics work, needs hardware acceleration (and color profile support, but that's another rant).
It is not your right, nor the GPL's, to tell ME what I do, or do not need, to use my computer effectively.
And certainly, it's not your right to tell me to stop using AMD cpu's. Ok-- I'll be fair. I'm sure there are standalone Intel GPU's out there with PCI-X connectors. I never looked.
It's becoming more apparent in the last 3 months, that the GPL isn't about "Free Software", the GPL is about restricting what people can, and cannot, do with software licensed under it, even to the point of attempting to punish commercial vendors.
Apparently, the "option" you refer to is that people use an OS such as Windows, or OSX, if they're doing anything other than programming with their computer.
Member since:2005-11-14
Well, that's a level of misunderstanding of the GPL I'm not letting slide.
The first freedom provided by the GPL is:
'The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).'
This means you're absolutely free to run any program you want on top of your Free operating system, free or proprietary.
What the the GPL restricts is your ability to restrict other people when you distribute software under the GPL. If you don't like it, simply don't distribute software under the GPL. The main problem here is not even with the GPL anyway, but the nVidia license.
And I'm sorry if I sound offensive but I have no idea what the hell you're talking about when you say I'm telling you not to use AMD CPU's. If you don't care about running non-free programs it doesn't matter to you, but the original poster I replied to does care (that's exactly what was asked). With AMD CPU's the choice of platform with free drivers is more limited, but still there are options available.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Member since:
2005-11-14
People have an option. They have the option to pay more for an nVidia/ATI board to gain something they don't need in the first place.
Intel graphics are good enough for most people's needs. They're even more than enough to run a fully accelerated X desktop.