Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 1st Jun 2012 23:56 UTC, submitted by Modafinil
"The Samba Team and seven kernel hackers have come together with Software Freedom Conservancy to help efforts to ensure compliance with the GPL by those who implement Linux and other GPL software. Richard Hillesley talked to Bradley Kuhn of Software Freedom Conservancy, Jeremy Allison of Samba, and Matthew Garrett, who works in his spare time with the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers."
Thread beginning with comment 520506
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[3]: What a waste of time....
by JAlexoid on Sun 3rd Jun 2012 02:19
in reply to "RE[2]: What a waste of time.... "
Member since:2009-05-19
The FSF never claims to be about "total freedom". The FSF, the GPL especially, is about SUSTAINED freedom and a pragmatic freedom. Read up on philosophy some time and learn about the actual effects of total freedom.
This just begs the following video to be posted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDv4sYwjO0
Also:
http://mises.org/daily/2066
http://reason.com/blog/2006/12/27/the-anarchy-advantage-in-somal
RE[3]: What a waste of time....
by Alfman on Sun 3rd Jun 2012 04:00
in reply to "RE[2]: What a waste of time.... "
Member since:2011-01-28
kwan_e,
I agree with almost the entirety of your post. But this below didn't compute for me:
"Linux isn't in competition with anything. Competition does not drive innovation in open source because money is not what is needed to survive."
Funnily enough, I think I disagree with almost every single point in there, haha.
Linux (both the platform and the kernel) is in competition with everything else on the market.
Some open source devs are lucky to be paid, but many just donate their own time, which drives alot of developers away from open sourcing their own work. I myself have a very difficult time finding a balance.
Even if money is not an issue, competition always has a presence, and that's a good thing for driving innovation.
Edit: with regards to the point you were initially responding to, I believe linux's good driver support has a lot to do with it's relative popularity. BSD's lack of support makes sense given that very few manufacturers are paying attention to it(them) and having fewer resources. I would not spontaneously attribute BSD's technical design to be the cause of it's lack of drivers (if I understood correctly, seems to be what was implied).
Edited 2012-06-03 04:13 UTC
RE[4]: What a waste of time....
by kwan_e on Sun 3rd Jun 2012 04:47
in reply to "RE[3]: What a waste of time.... "
Member since:2007-02-18
kwan_e,
I agree with almost the entirety of your post. But this below didn't compute for me:
"Linux isn't in competition with anything. Competition does not drive innovation in open source because money is not what is needed to survive."
Funnily enough, I think I disagree with almost every single point in there, haha.
Linux (both the platform and the kernel) is in competition with everything else on the market.
I agree with almost the entirety of your post. But this below didn't compute for me:
"Linux isn't in competition with anything. Competition does not drive innovation in open source because money is not what is needed to survive."
Funnily enough, I think I disagree with almost every single point in there, haha.
Linux (both the platform and the kernel) is in competition with everything else on the market.
I don't actually think it's true. Linux, like almost all open source software, is about "scratching your own itch". People contribute to Linux and open source, not because they want to compete and be the best and win awards. They're just contributing because they want something done and there's nothing around that fits their criteria, or that can be modified to fit their criteria.
If anything, what Linux competes for is attention, and it succeeds heavily in that area.
Even if money is not an issue, competition always has a presence, and that's a good thing for driving innovation.
Which exists whether or not GPL is used.
Edit: with regards to the point you were initially responding to, I believe linux's good driver support has a lot to do with it's relative popularity. BSD's lack of support makes sense given that very few manufacturers are paying attention to it(them) and having fewer resources. I would not spontaneously attribute BSD's technical design to be the cause of it's lack of drivers (if I understood correctly, seems to be what was implied).
The person I replied to claimed that if Linux were public domain, or at least not GPL'd, that it would magically have better driver support due to the kernel's internal interfaces being stabilized in face of competition.
Well, BSD is right there for such a speculation, and its lack of GPL has not borne the results claimed.
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 »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2007-02-18
Unless you're forced to use GPL without having incorporated GPL into your code, it is NOT forced communism. You are FREE to not choose GPL.
You're free not to use GPL libraries. This criticism I see all the time is just people complaining that they're not allowed to use other people's code without conditions.
Well guess what, normally, you'd have to BUY such code or write your own.
The FSF never claims to be about "total freedom". The FSF, the GPL especially, is about SUSTAINED freedom and a pragmatic freedom. Read up on philosophy some time and learn about the actual effects of total freedom.
Companies like Oracle would then be free to continue leeching off the efforts of the original developers without giving anything back.
Please explain the lack of drivers for the BSDs compared to Linux.
Linux isn't in competition with anything. Competition does not drive innovation in open source because money is not what is needed to survive.