Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 20th Mar 2012 22:47 UTC
"If you meet Linus Torvalds, he comes off as a mild-mannered, down-to-earth Finnish-American. He lives with his wife Tove, three kids, a cat, a dog, a snake, a goldfish, a bunny and a pet rat in a comfortable 6000 square foot home just north of Portland's tony Lake Oswego neighborhood. The house is yellow - his favorite color - and so's the Mercedes. But he's not really like any of his neighbors. He drives his Mercedes fast, slamming the car into gear and flooring it. There's no coaxing, no hesitation. Either the hammer is down, or the car is at rest. And he has an abnormal number of stuffed penguins on his mantle." Yup, sounds like the to-the-point Fin we all know and love.
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Member since:2007-02-18
He seems much more pragmatic about things than Stallman.
Everyone says Stallman is religious, but I don't think everyone has thought it through at all.
The GPL, for example, acknowledges the fact that people would like to be rewarded for their work, so it requires people give source code back. If people don't like it, then they don't use GPL code in their own code.
BSD apologists, on the other hand, are willing to sacrifice actual freedoms in return for an ideological freedom. And if ideological freedom is not religious then I don't know what is. The pragmatic Linus Torvalds chooses to remain with the GPL for pragmatic reasons.
Who is REALLY religious in the open source world are people like Theo de Raadt. And even then, given the security work that comes out of that, I say that's not a bad thing. In this case, being religious about standards of work delivers results.
Not to mention that Stallman's predictions about our rights being taken away are widely acknowledged to be happening. People are being denied to right to read or see videos or listen to music on their own terms.
I've come to the conclusion that anyone who says Stallman is "religious" or "ideological" haven't actually thought things through at all, but rather following popular opinion because it's fashionable.
Member since:2005-08-11
Member since:2007-09-22
Stallman strong believes have done a lot of the world.
Without it, Linux wouldn't exist in it's current form.
Just as an example gcc. It might not produce the best performing code. But it does produce code for a lot of architectures.
Do you think NetBSD would be available on that many platforms without gcc ?
I doubt Creative Commons would have even existed without his ideas.
Just see how many Creative Commons works there are just on Flickr alone: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Without Creative Commons Wikipedia might not exist either.
Those are some of the things that popped into my head, I'm sure there are better examples.
It seems to me even Thom had to change his mind:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25469/Richard_Stallman_Was_Right_All_Al...
People complain about articles about patents on OSNews, maybe without Stallman it would have been even worse.
Member since:2005-11-13
Stallman strong believes have done a lot of the world.
Without it, Linux wouldn't exist in it's current form.
Just as an example gcc. It might not produce the best performing code. But it does produce code for a lot of architectures.
Without it, Linux wouldn't exist in it's current form.
Just as an example gcc. It might not produce the best performing code. But it does produce code for a lot of architectures.
Stallman's strong beliefs haven't done shit for the world. Stallman (and his followers) wrote a lot of code and then gave it away, and THAT did a lot for the world. Linus did the same thing as Stallman, but doesn't have the same religious beliefs. In other words, if we'd have had more CODE from the FSF and less religion over the years from them, they'd probably have gotten a lot further than they are now.
Even some of the most religious fanatics have done good works, but that doesn't say anything about the validity of their religion. If a bunch of Christians (or Muslims) set up and run a homeless shelter, does that mean their god is real?
People complain about articles about patents on OSNews, maybe without Stallman it would have been even worse.
What does patents have to do with software licenses? Especially since even open source projects like Android are getting sued for patent violations. That is a COMPLETELY separate issue. Just because somebody patents 'slide to unlock' and sues over it doesn't mean the world needs to stop using non-free software.
Edited 2012-03-21 00:59 UTC
Member since:2009-01-09
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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Member since:
2005-11-13
I like Linus. He seems much more pragmatic about things than Stallman. In other words, I get the impression that he sees computers and software more as tools, rather than a religion.