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Message 1168488 - Posted: 6 Nov 2011, 2:13:33 UTC - in response to Message 1168262.  

There is also PCLinuxOS that is a nicely polished derivative of Mandriva.
I am a big fan of PCLinuxOS, I just wish they'd hurry up and release the long promised 64 bit version so I can use it run SAH CUDA. :-)

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Message 1168950 - Posted: 7 Nov 2011, 17:39:50 UTC
Last modified: 7 Nov 2011, 17:56:03 UTC

A few bits 'n' pieces. Looks like proprietary barriers are being pushed aside for local government to gain greater freedom for everyone. Meanwhile, there's a startling revelation for SAMBA (FLOSS network filesharing). FLOSS goes cloudy and live. And is the ever growing fallout from the (ab)use of patents going to be the end of patents as we know them?...


Open source buying toolkit published by UK Cabinet Office

The UK's Cabinet Office has published an Open Source Procurement Toolkit for the public sector. The toolkit consists of a set of documents including an introduction to open source, an advice note on how procurement of open source should progress, "Options for open source" and guidance on total cost of ownership. The options document surveys various sectors of the IT industry and notes open source alternatives to particular products in those sectors...

...should address the issues which caused problems, now resolved, for Bristol City Council's open source plans. ...



Bristol City Council all clear for open source

Bristol City Council has announced that there are "no security or accreditation issues that should hold us back from pushing ahead with our open source agenda". ...

... It had been suggested that CESG, an arm of GCHQ responsible for public authority cyber-security, would not accredit open source software and would instead require that authorities use Microsoft software as this was the only current software which had passed these tests. According to ComputerWeekly, this information came from Microsoft reseller Computacenter who had been contracted to assess the council's open source policy. The advice was reportedly branded "folk-law" at a council meeting...



Samba gets Microsoft code contribution

On 10 October 2011, a Microsoft developer contributed a GPL licensed patch to the Samba project. ... has now been noted as the passing of a milestone by Chris Hertel of the Samba team. Samba provides tools and servers which enable interoperability with Windows' SMB and CIFS networking on Linux and Unix based systems.

This isn't quite the first patch from a Microsoft employee though. In 1993, Lee Fisher, a Microsoft employee, added a debug statement to SMBcreate. But in the years that followed, the Samba developers had to resort to more and more reverse engineering as Microsoft moved further and further away from the specification...

... Hertel says "A few years back, a patch submission from coders at Microsoft would have been amazing to the point of unthinkable...



Samba Notes Passing a Milestone

Perhaps this has happened to you... You're cruising down the highway on a long roadtrip when a sleepy voice from the back seat pipes up to say "We just passed a sign that says there was a historic battle here". You keep on driving, but maybe you think about how that battle may have changed history, and how the two sides have managed to resolve their differences and have moved forward since then.

If you follow the Samba Technical Mailing List (and who doesn't, I mean really), you may have noted a patch submission that came in on October 10th, 2011. As often happens, a couple of developers at a company found a way to improve core Samba code. They got permission to submit the patches under their own copyright and the terms of the GPL, and they sent the patches in.

It happens all the time in Samba, and we are always grateful. The only notable thing in this particular case is the company for which those developers work: Microsoft. ...



We won and we didn't notice

A conversation with Jeremy Allison of Samba


NOTE: This one is NOT Linux, but parallels a similar ethos:

OpenBSD 5.0 released

OpenBSD 5.0 has been published, six months after the release of version 4.9. The OpenBSD project's newest release of the free BSD based UNIX-like operating system includes a number new and updated drivers, performance improvements and new features. ...


LibreOffice extensions and templates site now live

Following a six-week public beta, The Document Foundation (TDF) has announced that the project's new extensions and templates repositories for LibreOffice are now online. In a post on the TDF blog, Florian Effenberger, a member of the Foundation's Board of Directors, says that the sites are just "one of the many community efforts at the LibreOffice project", adding that the repositories will "benefit of millions of LibreOffice and free office users worldwide". ...


And one not for the faint hearted!

Linux From Scratch Version 7.0 released

The Linux From Scratch (LFS) project has released Version 7.0 of its manual for building a custom Linux installation. The new version of these step-by-step instructions uses more recent components than previous editions – for example the recently introduced version 3.1 of the Linux kernel, the fairly recent GCC version 4.6.1, and the Glibc 2.14.1. The new LFS also explains how to set up a "/run" directory in the root directory using tmpfs, an approach taken by various distributions for several months. ...


And to go Cloudy:

First commercial OpenStack-based cloud compute service announced

The first commercially available cloud compute service built on the open source OpenStack platform has been announced by IT infrastucture provider Internap. The company says that, by being based on OpenStack and through the use of standardised APIs, the new service, Open Public Cloud, enables customers to avoid the pitfall of cloud vendor lock-in. ...


And there's lots more good stuff.

I just hope that the currently unfolding IP/Patents Armageddon doesn't spread it's fallout too wide and into the FLOSS world. I suspect certain players will try to avoid that at all costs due to the very high value they are extorting from 'licensing' unsubstantiated threats. Meanwhile, is the legacy of Steve Jobs to go "thermonuclear" going to develop into something gone MAD?

Are we in the middle of a PATENT BUBBLE?

Fallout from the IP wars could mutate your smartphone...

... all the patent players seem pretty sure of one thing - it's a huge issue for technology. And it's probably the issue for the smartphone sector, likely to shape market share, prices and innovation in what's fast becoming a multi-billion dollar industry.


And for two apt comments on that:

patents have been over-used

patents worked well until the rules were broken



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Message 1169750 - Posted: 10 Nov 2011, 15:28:34 UTC
Last modified: 10 Nov 2011, 15:30:37 UTC

A roundup of a few snippets. The unfolding patents blitzkrieg looms large...


Is this adding to the jitters in the x86-based world of Microsoft?...

Intel Says Android 4.0 Has x86 Optimizations

Just two months after announcing an alliance with Google, Intel now claims that Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" will feature support for x86 architecture. ...


Google adds a riposte to the latest advances by Microsoft:

Google Says Microsoft Uses Patents When Its Products Fail

According to a Google lawyer, Microsoft brings out its patent guns when its products fail and it's cornered in the market.

... the patent system itself is broken thanks to a patent office that granted protection to "broad, vague or unoriginal ideas masquerading as inventions." Now Microsoft is reportedly abusing that broken system by stockpiling dubious patents and "taxing" those supplying Google's Android operating system.

"When their products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalized, as is happening now with Android, they use the large patent portfolio they've built up to get revenue from the success of other companies' products," Porter said, also pointing out that Microsoft used a similar tactic with Linux. ...

... So I don't think it's historically inevitable."

"The period of intense patent assertions (against things like the steam engine) resulted in decades-long periods of stagnation," he added. "Innovation only took off when the patents expired."



And moving onto a nice example of FLOSS innovation taking off on a huge scale:

Hadoop: Making Linux gobble big data

Growing penguins need petabytes to feast on

The Hadoop big data muncher has grown into more than Yahoo! conceived when it open-sourced its search engine indexing tool and its underlying file system back in 2009. And it has become exactly what open-source projects aspire to be: a centre of gravity around which a maelstrom of innovation coalesces. ...



And still going strong:

Linux: Now 400 Distributions Strong

Choice is certainly not a problem for Linux in trying to reach more users.

A new report now lists 400 different Linux distributions that are currently available. ...



That is beautifully diagrammatically shown in a cladogram on the GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline. Select the latest "svg" if you have a recent browser for beautiful detail. Select the "png" if you're running some old stuff...

Yet some, seem to be disturbed by choice and change:

Ubuntu republic riven by damaging civil wars

There's a popular misconception about open source: that it's democratic, that all users have a vote over its direction and development or even the running of the community around it.

The users of Ubuntu, arguably the world's most popular Linux distro these days, are currently discovering that this is not how it works. The result is making a lot of people very angry, but it might result in some interesting new developments for Linux – as well as maybe pointing the way towards the UIs of the next generation of PC. ...

... Ubuntu is gambling that Unity will attract floods of new Linux users in such numbers as to outweigh those abandoning it for its spin-offs and rivals. If it's correct, then Ubuntu will continue its rise to near-total dominance of the Linux desktop. But if it's wrong, it will leave the Linux world more fragmented than ever.



For myself, I think we will keep a level of choice for whatever level of interest there is in maintaining the multitude of distros to offer that choice. All provided that we can all keep our freedoms...


And for a bit of fun for those who might still consider Linux 'boring':

Recently added free & paid open & closed source Linux games on Penguspy



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Message 1171903 - Posted: 18 Nov 2011, 13:46:08 UTC - in response to Message 1169750.  

And moving onto a nice example of FLOSS innovation taking off on a huge scale:

Hadoop: Making Linux gobble big data

Growing penguins need petabytes to feast on

The Hadoop big data muncher has grown into more than Yahoo! conceived when it open-sourced its search engine indexing tool and its underlying file system back in 2009. And it has become exactly what open-source projects aspire to be: a centre of gravity around which a maelstrom of innovation coalesces. ...



Looks like Microsoft has admitted defeat on that one:

Microsoft Dryad trampled in Hadoop stampede

Microsoft is surrendering to the Google-inspired Hadoop it once sought to challenge with its own big-data crunching architecture.

There will be no further updates to Dryad, officially called "LINQ to HPC", and Dryad won't be developed as a product, Microsoft has said. ...

... Microsoft will instead make Hadoop - an open-source project represented by a cartoon yellow elephant - run better on Windows Sever and Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud architecture, the company said.

The company in October announced it would integrate Hadoop with the forthcoming SQL Server 2012 database...

... Microsoft came to Hadoop inadvertently, through the acquisition of semantic search specialist Powerset in 2008. Powerset ran on Hadoop, but a year and a half after the acquisition, Powerset was taken off Hadoop by Microsoft because it didn't run well on Windows. ...



Is this the start of an extended deadly embrace?...



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Message 1176864 - Posted: 9 Dec 2011, 19:44:30 UTC - in response to Message 1171903.  

I've been running 64 bit Kubuntu for a few weeks now. This is a very nice and easy to use OS. Very similar to the Mandriva KDE version


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Message 1188499 - Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 11:57:38 UTC - in response to Message 1176864.  

I've been running 64 bit Kubuntu for a few weeks now. This is a very nice and easy to use OS. Very similar to the Mandriva KDE version

Yes, Kubuntu is one of my 'likes' even though I'm still mainly on Mandriva. I just hope Mandriva's latest round of corporate politics doesn't do too much damage... Meanwhile, the Mageia fork continues and gains strength.

Good luck for your adventures!

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Message 1188502 - Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 12:13:00 UTC

Meanwhile, developments continue...

Just a little bit of controversy for introducing new ideas and new ways to try new things:


Ubuntu swaps application menus for HUD control system

The Ubuntu operating system is to replace its application menus with a "head-up display" (HUD) box.

Users control the HUD interface by typing in the command they want carried out.

Developers of the Linux-based software say they will initially offer the HUD as an option, allowing users to "hide" their menu bars.

They say that using the HUD is faster than "mousing through a menu" and makes applications feel more powerful. ...

... Mr Shuttleworth admits people may find it harder to discover the full functionality of a program if they do not have a menu system to hunt around, but he says other benefits make up for this loss.

"We observe people staying more engaged and more focused on their task when they can keep their hands on the keyboard all the time."

He added that removing menus also saved spaced on the computer screen.

Historical relic?

Graphics-based menu-controlled systems have been used on computers ever since Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center invented the interface controls in the 1970s. ...



And the usual irreverent comments from TheRegister:

HUD's up! Ubuntu creates menu-free GUI

No drop-downs in the future

... the "menu of the future" for its next Linux desktop. ...



A couple of other interesting snippets from two big players:

Microsoft's magic bullet for Azure: Red Hat Linux

Analysis If Microsoft loves money, and it does, then making Linux publicly available on its proprietary Azure cloud can't come soon enough.

... Microsoft knows Red Hat is important: as much as it hurt his eyes, in 2005 Steve Ballmer presided over a demonstration of Microsoft's Virtual Server at a Microsoft Management Summit running Red Hat and managed through Operations Manager. This rapprochement came five years into a Redmond campaign to dismiss and vilify Linux with Ballmer saying his company had listened to customers who'd demanded better support for non-Windows machines.

Microsoft now loves Linux when it's running as a virtualised instance on its gear.

By embracing Linux, Microsoft managed to contain the Penguin's once rapid advance in the server room and, according to IDC, Windows now accounts for nearly 50 per cent of server revenues compared to just under 20 per cent for Linux.

The closed, controlled environment of the server room however is no longer Microsoft's big problem: it's the cloud. ...


Some rather 'clever' wording there... The first comment is rather apt:
"Windows now accounts for nearly 50 per cent of server revenues compared to just under 20 per cent for Linux." ... Might that be due to the fact that Windows is a tad more expensive than SLES/RHEL etc...

...I really do think that this is the last throws of a Dinosaur before it goes extinct.



And Google continues a steady march with ChromeOS:

Google plays the long game with ChromeOS

Google is betting that slow and steady will prove a winning strategy for its ChromeOS platform, and is reporting some successes for the system in the education sector. ...

... Sengupta pointed out that many of the web applications upon which the ChromeOS relies will be quite hardware-intensive, particularly with modern browsers now supporting hardware acceleration of graphics. That, and the fact that people really don’t like the cramped keyboards that come with netbooks (Chrome systems have a full sized – if slightly altered – keyboard,) shows people still see the value in a full-sized lappy with a little grunt.

However, it’s the education market that seems to be gaining the most traction with ChromeOS. Schools in 41 US states are using Chromebooks, and three states have signed up to take 27,000 units over the next three years. As they are browser-based, there’s much less IT administration to do and a single control panel allows a BOFH to lock down and easily update such systems – and it helps they’re relatively cheap. ...

... Business however is a tougher nut to crack. Sengupta claimed that there are companies who are trying out the system on specific company niches – such as sales people who take them out on the road – but businesses take a lot longer to commit to new technology...


For my own view, ChromeOS has it's place and is great for offering a choice of OSes. Hopefully a few other OSes will make it big to give some balanced competition.


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Message 1188507 - Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 12:28:20 UTC

Aside: At the moment I'm sorting out some disaster recovery that includes a Win2003 server and Win7 desktops.

So why am I having to work with such an old operating system yet running on modern high performance high cost hardware?... I guess the cost of updating in license fees and time was just too far too high.

Anyhow, I've rediscovered the hard way that if you stay logged into remote desktop / terminal services for too long, you crash the terminal services! The Microsoft "Knowledge base" is truly a stupendous repository, and scary for the vastness of the issues it covers. Sure enough, the problem is a known problem and a special "hotfix" can be applied. No you can't successfully just restart that service (tried the taskkill pid and start). No the hotfix hasn't been applied and in any case a server reboot will be required and that's a no-go because strangely enough, that server is in use!...

So I'm bombed down to an incredibly impoverished existence on the "serial console"! I'll just have to wait for the weekend before risking a remote reboot...

Oh instead for the beautiful wonders of *nix and the freedom to enjoy a reliable ssh login!


All good fun! And a good reminder of windows that can't be resized, and things that jump back to defaults whether you might want that or not.

I wonder if that is why I run Linux for my own systems...

IT is what we make it for ourselves!
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Message 1188510 - Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 12:34:35 UTC - in response to Message 1188504.  
Last modified: 26 Jan 2012, 12:35:19 UTC

The world, rightly or wrongly, is predominately Wintel. That is not likely to change in the next decade. IT fads come and go, it as simple as that. Nothing so far has significantly rattled my cage for a major change.

It's good that new ideas are being tried... But yes, people are reluctant or too busy or too uninterested to try new things and so the old will linger on for a long time yet. Perhaps the worst example of that is old school teachers supposedly teaching sciences and IT and still living in the past for when they first graduated. Meanwhile, the world of science and IT has changed dramatically and left them dramatically way behind.

There will be a lot of Wintel kit lingering on until the fuse finally blows on the PSU...

(Strangely enough, I've just replaced a PSU to recover a Wintel box... Backups to be run next!)


All good fun...

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Message 1190226 - Posted: 30 Jan 2012, 23:46:29 UTC - in response to Message 1188510.  

... It's good that new ideas are being tried...


And it gives ElReg a bit of a giggle :-)


Sick of Ubuntu's bad breath? Suck on a Linux Mint instead

Unity rival isn't a monster frankengnome

If the jump from the GNOME 2 desktop to the new GNOME Shell or Unity desktop in Ubuntu has left you feeling dissatisfied, one increasingly popular distribution just might offer something that turns out to be the best of both worlds - Linux Mint.

Originally created as a spinoff of Ubuntu, Mint has long since come into its own and offers a number of advantages over other distros, including a desktop that dares to stay firmly in the Middle Earth of the ongoing desktop holy wars.

Mint takes what's good about the GNOME Shell while retaining what was great about GNOME 2. The result is...


Very pretty and well recommended!



All good fun...

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Message 1195838 - Posted: 16 Feb 2012, 0:37:18 UTC
Last modified: 16 Feb 2012, 0:37:53 UTC

Following on, quite a good review considering the Windows bias... Some crazy comments!

Ubuntu 11.10 Review: Benchmarked Against Windows 7

Three months have passed since the latest version of Ubuntu launched. With its classic desktop gone, Oneiric Ocelot is all Unity. The training wheels are off; no turning back now. Is Ubuntu ready for touchscreens? And how does it compare to Windows 7? ...



All good fun even if a little condescending...

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Message 1196127 - Posted: 16 Feb 2012, 22:45:20 UTC

One to give any office suit a good run for its money:


LibreOffice debugs and buffs up to v.3.5

Dancing on the grave of OpenOffice

The Document Foundation (TDF) has announced the release of LibreOffice 3.5, which it modestly describes as “the best free office suite ever.” ...



The usual fun irreverence and at least a half-fair summary. The comments make for more interesting reading than the article! :-)


One to be tried!

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Message 1208084 - Posted: 19 Mar 2012, 23:46:24 UTC
Last modified: 19 Mar 2012, 23:49:30 UTC

LOTs has been happening, as always in the world of FLOSS...

All very worthy of a summary. Shame I'm a bit rushed at the moment. However, one bit of news has just got to be splashed out:


Latest Linux kernel 3.3 comes with added Android

Two becoming one in forking reunion

The latest kernel update for Linux has been released, and features supporting Android are back for the first time since 2010, along with improved processor and networking support.

"For a long time, code from the Android project has not been merged back to the Linux repositories due to disagreement between developers from both projects," the release notes state. "Fortunately, after several years the differences are being ironed out. Various Android subsystems and features have already been merged, and more will follow in the future. This will make things easier for everybody, including the Android mod community, or Linux distributions that want to support Android programs." ...



There's far better coverage elsewhere but The Register does have an irreverent fun way with words ;-)

There's a lot of story there about semantics and quality. The reunion is good for all, including good development.

The latest features added are also a very nice step ahead of certain other "OSes"... So why does one particular OS supplier insist that the EFI boot is NOT to WORK for Linux for their software 'badge'... Cue anti-competitive behavior and fines?...


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Message 1208102 - Posted: 20 Mar 2012, 1:14:21 UTC - in response to Message 1208084.  
Last modified: 20 Mar 2012, 1:14:44 UTC

LOTs has been happening, as always in the world of FLOSS...

So why does one particular OS supplier insist that the EFI boot is NOT to WORK for Linux for their software 'badge'... Cue anti-competitive behavior and fines?...


All in the world of freedoms,
Martin

why it should?
just buy computer made for linux.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exist elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
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Message 1208671 - Posted: 22 Mar 2012, 0:59:17 UTC - in response to Message 1208102.  

... just buy computer made for linux.

Some people can and do.

However, there is a huge legacy of anti-competitive practice that still continues to stifle faster adoption...

All fair in stifling your freedoms?


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Message 1208675 - Posted: 22 Mar 2012, 1:06:33 UTC
Last modified: 22 Mar 2012, 1:09:44 UTC

A rather quirky but still interesting article that acknowledges there is a free and open alternative that works, and works well:


Fedora 16 And GNOME Shell: Tested And Reviewed

Ubuntu and Mint don't want it; Linus called it an “unholy mess.” While most other distros are passing up or postponing GNOME Shell, Fedora is full steam ahead. Does Red Hat know something the rest of us don't? Or is GNOME 3 really as bad as everyone says?

... Like Unity, GNOME Shell is the victim of polarizing extremes. Both new interfaces seem to be met with either adoration or outright hostility. ...

... Is the harsh criticism justified? ... Is the latest Fedora a leaner, meaner incarnation of Linux than Ubuntu? How does it stack up against Windows 7? Is Fedora 16 even fit for the average end-user desktop scenario? ...



I'm not sure of the approach by the reviewer, or for the selection, but there's certainly some good controversy there!

For anyone into games (one point that is 'knocked'), then take a look at live.linuX-gamers. That is only a yearly sample of a very few, but gives a start. There's lots more on:

http://www.lgdb.org/
http://www.penguspy.com/
http://www.tuxgames.com/
http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/
http://linuxgamingworld.com/
http://www.desura.com/

for just a few.


All good controversial fun!

All in the name of freedom,

Cheers,
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Message 1209302 - Posted: 23 Mar 2012, 16:53:37 UTC - in response to Message 1209075.  
Last modified: 23 Mar 2012, 16:55:53 UTC

Why do any of you think that all these open source programs are free?

Because people wouldn't pay any money for them.

Good FUD there. Here we go again...

Do not confuse "free-of-cost" with "freedom". However with FLOSS, you often do get both.

And "free-of-cost" does not mean of "no value". Just one obvious example is you can get all the source code for the Linux kernel for "free-of-cost". Indeed that is a requirement of the GPL that protects freedom. The code alone has been valued at over a billion dollars in development effort and runs some very expensive supercomputers around the world. You can also have it run something much less expensive such as the RaspberryPi... All just a question of your freedoms...


Next cheap FUD please?

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Message 1209354 - Posted: 23 Mar 2012, 19:09:26 UTC - in response to Message 1209075.  

Why do any of you think that all these open source programs are free?

Because people wouldn't pay any money for them.

QED


Is air of no value to you as you do not have to pay for that?

Companies (e.g. RedHat, Oracle, Apache) do make money from open source programs, by selling support. Many businesses are unwilling to use software unless support agreements are in place, many of the same businesses use Linux for their server OS of choice.


I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

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Message 1209463 - Posted: 24 Mar 2012, 1:50:32 UTC - in response to Message 1209425.  
Last modified: 24 Mar 2012, 1:51:05 UTC

Companies (e.g. RedHat, Oracle, Apache) do make money from open source programs, by selling support.


It's back to the old razor blade syndrome again. Here's a free razor, we'll get our money back by flogging the blades. Here's a free printer, we'll get our money back by flogging you the ink/toners. Here's a free OS, you want support, ah well, come and talk to us ....

Different markets and wrong analogy.

Also, FLOSS is not influenced by "Market forces" in the usual monetary sense. Hence a common comment is that if some problem or solution is "interesting", then it's been done. The more mundane and less interesting is left to the Marketing sharks to exploit...

You get owt for nowt in this world.

You missed a word or two from that?

Also, are you aware of "academic ideals" as opposed to market exploitation? They are very different worlds with a very different ethos... So which do you think better describes FLOSS?

And that doesn't mean that FLOSS has no place in the noisome Marketplace...


And beyond that, what price do you put on freedom?

IT is what we make it,
Martin
See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)
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Message 1209495 - Posted: 24 Mar 2012, 3:44:50 UTC - in response to Message 1209463.  

You get owt for nowt in this world.

You missed a word or two from that?

owt = anything

You get anything for nothing in this world.

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Message boards : Politics : Linux hits the world


 
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