"Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser. The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download, completely free of charge, here." This news got submitted a staggering 14 times, and as far as I know, that's a record.
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Member since:2005-07-06
The "inherent goodness" of OSS is that you get free development.
And it's not like they have something to lose by OSS:ing the browser now that it's free.
They will still get all of the revenue from selling embedded versions, using google search et al, PLUS the benefit of a huge mindshare working on their product for free. I see no reason for them not to do the same thing as Trolltech is currently doing.
Member since:2005-07-06
"The "inherent goodness" of OSS is that you get free development."
What is so good about that? The company has people who know the software inside out, who are committed to it and invested in it? What would then be the benefit of having a disparate bunch of strangers hacking at the code?
RE[2]: First step towards open source?
Member since:2005-06-29
Personally I'm learning C++ and want to start developing a game I've been conceptualizing for a long time. I don't think I would release my game as open source software even though I think the first few versions will be freeware.
The reason why I wouldn't open source my software, and don't expect any one else to is because it complicates things for the developer(s). I like OSS, and without it I might still be stuck with Windows as the only OS available to me; however, I've also seen some great proprietary applications, and I think it's detrimental to expect every piece of software to be open source.
Open source licensing, in my opinion, made OSS projects like Azureus and Gaim more at risk of being modified and re-released as spiware-infested proprietary software; that did happen by the way, and it also damaged the reputation of those two programs imo. While OSS does protect the rights of the user, it doesn't do a whole lot for developers who can't afford legal battles. Also the technicalities can be argued until the sun explodes, but if OSS software were proprietary instead then maybe Mandriva Linux would not have a free version, and then to use it I would have to shell out for a copy instead of using the free download version, then Mandriva might actually make some money from me.
In my defence for always getting the free download version of Mandriva or SUSE though, I'm a student and cannot afford unecessary purchases, especially since I was recently laid off from work.
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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:
2005-07-06
Why on earth would they OSS the product? They generate plenty of revenue from their engine from commercial products; I doubt Macromedia would licence Presto if it was OSS.
There is NO inherent 'goodness' about OSS software and no reason that all software should go there.