"I also don't have a lot of interest in being a good person or bad person, from what I can tell either way you are screwed." This is what Georgia Lass, lead character of my favourite television production "Dead Like Me", says, when she introduces herself in the pilot episode. I cannot speak for the developers behind the Kororaa Xgl live CD, but I'd think Georgia nailed the situation they must be in pretty well. Note: this is the Mon... Err, Sunday Eve Column. My apologies for the delay, but I was... Incapacitated yesterday eve.
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Member since:2005-06-29
If there would be no GPL or GNU, there would be no linux distribution as you know it today.
Nonsense. If the FSF didn't write a compiler, someone else would've. Saying that Linux thanks its existance to the FSF or the GPL is rather shortsighted-- Linus would've just chosen another license. I don't think Linus thought: "Hey, there's a GPL, let's write a kernel for it.". It was the other way around. "I have written a kernel, maybe the GPL is a suitable license."
Member since:2006-01-16
There were compilers before the FSF was there. There was also UNIX. It's not like "if guy xy wouldn't have invented the wheel, someone else would have".
Why should anyone write a decent C compiler and distribute it completely freely, if not for idealistic reasons?
What would Linus have done with his kernel without GNU? Would others have joined Linus' development if it was another license? Do you really think the kernel is the biggest part of an operating system?
Who's talking nonsense, you just can't know what would've been. Who would've written a gcc equivalent? You?
It could be that we would have the same we have now without the FSF. But I don't think that's realistic for today.
cu
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p.s.: Someone modded my comment done, but what was the reason so it got accomplished? I can only think of "Yes, I disagree with this user/opinion". Surely an option only available for OSNews editors who can call other's comments as "nonsense" I guess. Sadly enough I can't mod down your *private opinion*.
Member since:2005-07-06
Nonsense. If the FSF didn't write a compiler, someone else would've.
Nonsense. It takes more than one person to write a compiler of that quality and breadth. Besides that, you seem to be missing a lot of important evidence to support your case -- their are plenty of licenses to choose from yet GPL'd products are prevalant in FOSS. I posit that the reason so many people contribute to GPL projects is just because they know that their work will be equally shared by all as per the GPL agreement. No one is FORCED to use GPL products but the law insists that we obey copyrights. For example, I don't use MS products because I don't care for their licensing which prohibits things I might want to do, such as using parts of their code base to form a new product of my own. Yet I respect Microsoft's right to choose how to license their product. It would be very nice (and not at all asking too much) if people choosing to use GPL'd products would obey copyright and adhere to the licenses that the products are provided with.
Member since:2005-11-23
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2006-01-16
Many things people can't do actually would make people's work much more attractive. It's just they are not allowed to do so and almost everytime it is to protect someone elses rights.
Some things, even if it's sad, just can't be done. The real problem are the proprietary drivers. I know there won't be free nvidia drivers. But if windows would demand hardware developers to release their drivers open, guess what we would have. So blame nvidia, ati.
If there would be no GPL or GNU, there would be no linux distribution as you know it today. So don't blame people for what they have contributed, just because they have done it in a way which doesn't fit all needs.
Don't say "this license doesn't make sense, because I don't care a f--k". This doesn't matter. The developers seem to care or have cared, and you have to obey their rules.
cu
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