The Free Software Foundation is reviewing Novell's right to sell new versions of Linux operating system software after the open-source community criticized Novell for teaming up with Microsoft. "The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. They have every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a significant patent aggression by Microsoft," Eben Moglen, the Foundation's general counsel, said on Friday. Update: The FSF claims this is being hyped.
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Member since:2007-01-18
After listening to Richard Stallman explain what he means by Free Software I have to say that I know understand why FSF and many other are upset with Novell. Although I still think Stallman is a nut job it doesn't mean he's not right.
However, I still support Novell and I still think that many of the negative comments, especially at first, were nothing more than blind hatred for Microsoft. I should point out that the comments I'm referring to are comments like the one you are reading now and not those made by people like Stallman.
I suppose I've been shown a new way of thinking about Free Software and Open Source so please forgive me if I sound contradictory to any of my previous statements. I won't say I get it, but at least I'm trying.
Member since:2006-12-28
I know what you mean. I'm not Stallman's biggest fan but I think he's right in this case. For once I see the pragmatic side of him that allot of people that have met him speak about.
As for knee jerk statements, isn't that always the case? It's been my experience in situations like this people let they're emotions take over, fly off the handle and spout venomous hate without first thinking the situation through.
I know it looks really detrimental to GNU/Linux and I understand why people are out for blood but the bottom line seems to be that the FSF is acting in a positive manner and trying to prevent such deals from being made in the future. Hopefully Novell will have learned their lesson and we can get on with revolutionising the IT industry ;-)
Member since:2006-06-19
RMS is great - when taken as a whole and when allowed to fully explain and answer questions to the fullest.
If you only get the snippets, then yes he seems unreasonable and not quite in touch with reality. But IMO he is a realist and a idealist, and when you really listen to what he says it all starts to make sense. Not a brainwashing type of "sense" but a real, honest to goodness - "hey I get it" type of sense. At least it does for me....
Actually, you should be able to realize this "sense" on your own and not need it explained but we have been brainwashed so long to not demand that things make sense that we accept it as normal now and anything else seems contrary to this is dismissed as crazy talk.
There are really only a few "ideals" you need to grasp to truly "get it" and then you will apply them across the board and it will all start making sense.
gNewSense - it is not just a distro it is a way of thinking! 
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:
2006-12-28
I don't know if most people reading/posting this tread share my view but I'm willing to give Novell the benefit of the doubt. I'm not at all pissed at Novell, I think they got snared in a typical MS deal. I think they're crazy to have negotiated it in the first place but that hardly qualifies them for out and out bashing on my part.
I am very angry at MS though and so should allot of people. Their tactics stink and always have. Trying to split and turn the community against itself by using double speak seems to be the tactic at the moment. Frankly, that's unethical.