More Companies Jump on the Linux Train 178
I had a thought while I was typing the words above: should Slashdot do periodic "roundups" of new Linux ports and support announcements? With so many hardware and software vendors now moving into the "Linux marketplace" (which is how many of them see Linux -- as a marketplace), these announcements are no longer "news" in the sense of being unique or unusual events, but they're still good to know about.
Should we make a weekly post out of all these announcements? Or, because they don't come in at an even rate, should we save them up until we have 10 or so and post them all then whether that takes two days or three weeks?
So, besides posting any new Linux product/support announcements you've seen lately, how about a little advice on how Slashdot might best handle these announcements in the future? I promise to read every comment with a moderation level of zero or higher.
- Robin "roblimo" Miller
"In a future product" (Score:4)
And we're supposed to be pleased with this?
IBM, is less then they announce (Score:1)
--
"take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and I'll show you how deep the rabitt hole goes"
Linux? What about Free Software? (Score:5)
Linux isn't what's important. Free Software is.
Linux is software, and software comes and goes. Whether some company or other jumps on the Linux bandwagon is irrelevant in the big picture. What is truly important is to spread Free Software in general - not only the software itself, but the accompanying meme that says, essentially, that "sharing is profitable". The catch is to ingrain this idea into our culture in the same way that sharing is already ingrained in the scientific and mathematical communities.
Once we've done that, we'll have achieved something much greated than pressuring a lot of companies to support a Free operating system. We'll have dominated the world. Because world domination is not achieved by actually taking over the world, but by having the world think that you're in control of it.
(Again, sorry for the rant. I'm in extended no-sleep mode.)
Re:"In a future product" (Score:2)
Perhaps there is a case for a /. spin-off site that watches companies that make Linux related commitments over a period of time and attempts to assess the sincerity of those company's efforts.
Leave this to Linux Weekly News (Score:4)
In answer to roblimo's question, I find that Linux Weekly News (www.lwn.net [lwn.net]) already does an excellent job of such roundups. This isn't something slashdot needs to duplicate.
Re:Linux? What about Free Software? (Score:1)
--
"take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and I'll show you how deep the rabitt hole goes"
Proposal: Linux announce page (Score:3)
How is this accessible on the main page? A slashbox of course! Make it a default one so everyone can see what's been announced in a box on the main page.
Re:Linux? What about Free Software? (Score:2)
Also, why does Linux support so often end up being X86 only? Within 5 feet of me I have Linux running on Sparc, StrongARM and PowerPC, but there are many Linux applications distributed as binaries only that I can only use on an Intel box.
Veritas to support Linux (Score:2)
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/a
Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? (Score:3)
The driver is released in the form of a single C "wrapper" file that links with the main portion of the driver, which is binary-only. Does this seem to any of you to be a sneaky way to say they are delivering source, but in fact are not?
IANAL, but from what I have always believed the GPL meant, you can't link GPL code with binary-only modules.
Can anyone knowledgable comment on this?
________________________________
Re:"In a future product" (Score:5)
The point is that the unscrupulous could quite easily get themselves onto
I think that perhaps
Finally! this is happening (Score:1)
Prakash
Gear CDR too (Score:3)
John Linux (Score:1)
Don't you just love that merketing-buzzword fluff!??
It's funny, laugh.
_________________________
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
Linux is important! (Score:5)
I don't require that everypiece of software is GPL'ed, or even that every piece of software is freely available in any form.
Binary only software distribution has it's place and so does (gasp horror) binary only software that you have to pay money for.
What is important about linux gaining mainstream driver support (even in binary only form) is that people now have a real choice in the future on intel rather than being forced to use Microsoft operating systems by default.
With the mostly collapse of non-intel architecture unix platforms in the workstation market (Sun, SGI, HP etc) we needed a robust unix based low cost alternative.
Linux is it, and I don't care if some software is binary only or I have to pay money for it.
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? (Score:1)
hard core real time 3D (Score:2)
http://www.sidefx.com
sweet. I even used the renderer and scene generator under FreeBSD
Linux on non intel(was Re:Linux is important!) (Score:2)
Which is why the Open Source/ Free Software meme is more important than the OS itself. Remember, the idea is to support the meme, not an OS on one platform.
Re:Does M$ support linux yet (Score:1)
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
No source? Pfft. (Score:2)
I wouldn't smile at this list though if every company on there was only releasing closed source and proprietary products, though.
To get community support, you need to be friendly to the community. That means you can't try any lock-in bullshit, nor obfuscated code, nor "OH, THAT'S PRIVATE INFORMATION. WE HAVE NEEDS, SORRY :))".
How about we only post products that are 100% open source? Tbat means that you are in fact giving publicity to products that would support this community, and in turn be providing a true community service, and you'd also, indirectly, encourage them to strive to get on your list.
Open source as in, not some cheapassed Acme Public License, but one that is recognized and accepted.
Of course, there are also those people who just want a Windows clone without Microsoftian dominance. Our viewpoints differ here. Oh well.
--Michael Bacarella
Merant and RIMS porting to Linux (Score:3)
The company I work for, RIMS [rims.com], and a vendor of ours, Merant [merant.com], will have a joint press release out tomorrow. The process release will be about Merant's porting of their Micro Focus Object COBOL [merant.com] stuff to Linux and our efforts to port our QicClaim/2 [rims.com] product to the COBOL port on Linux. <marketing speak>QC/2, as with all our software, is aimed at the healthcare verticle market. QC/2 is used to administrate health benefit programs, mostly used be third party administrators.</marketing speak>
No, its not open sourced, but its the start of greater use of Linux and open source projects within my company. Something I've been fighting a year for. We hope to have some open source stuff out there in the near future. We're deceiding the what, where, and when of all that. But I'm pretty excited as I'll be a big part of all of it.
Re:Leave this to Linux Weekly News (Score:3)
In my opinion it would be best to have it on another site as Slashdot, since Slashdot is more about discussing news and not about Linux drivers
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? (Score:1)
________________________________
Linux Anouncements (Score:5)
First create a anounce section, in which every 'anouncement' is an article. This gives people the option to discuss every anouncement, eg those aurol 3d drivers seem to be a nice discussed item, so why stomp the discussions.
Then create a slashbox, to show the most N-recent anouncements. This alows people who are interested to see all the recent trafic on the 'anounce list', but ppl who dont care dont have to be confronted.
Then every once a 'period' eg week, biweekly or whatever, do a roundup, as we do quickies every-once-in-a-while (Tm) currently, on the main page.
This way people who want to read, and reply to everything, can.
People who have questions on this release/anouncements, have a place to discuss.
People who just care a little bit, can just read the slashbox, to get a @ a glance impression.
People who care even less, will see an article commin by every week/ every other week, and get a quick glance @ what happend, and is of intrest...
This way we should serve all people, and all desire levels.
-- Chris Chabot
"I dont suffer from insanity, i enjoy every minute of it!"
Why I don't like free software (Score:1)
Besides, software is not a mathematical truth or a scientific discovery. It is more like a machine. All machines cost money.
Writing software involves a lot of creativity. Why don't artists give away their paintings for free? Because they have to eat maybe?
Imagine a large and sophisticated CAD package. Say 100 programmers spent a year developing it. Why should it be free?
Taking over the world? Give me a break.
Corel and "SlashDot PR" (Score:1)
Ohh and Oracle brought everybody to the server
Yes. A periodic roundup of "These people joined the bandwagon over the past month" would be nice. Also list "these old timers have put down deeper roots". IBM isn't the only company pushing more into Linux each day you know
A subsection for "Slashdot PR" would be nice too. Just like we have an "Ask Slashdot". You may well need an editor for handling just the PR chores ( I volunteer. A small salary and a few stock options is payment enough
Binary-only modules (Score:1)
Freshmeat (Score:4)
While both
This may be regarded as troll, non-/.-ish or whatever, but please read it and think twize, before you moderate or comment.
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
We've wanted to do a linux announcement section for a while now, just are short staffed to really do anthing about it. Would it be worthwhile to create a submission section so that users could post what's new in this field?
If so, please let us know [mailto]. Thanks for your time.
-Chris Simmons
The Optical Valley Project
http://www.opticalvalley.com [opticalvalley.com]
Re:Why I don't like free software (Score:1)
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? Probably no (Score:4)
For what you seem to describe we have a situation with the following schema:
Binary driver --> C file (wrapper) -->Linux kernel
Given that Linus specifically allowed binary drivers these are not violating the GPL FOR LINUX ONLY (Linus said it was Ok, but this only apply to Linux).
They have a good reason to do this wrapper:
Linus don't care that much if new kernels break the compatibility with binary-only driver (and IMHO he is right), so doing a wrapper to the driver allow them to just change this wrapper to keep the compatibility, they can also put the wrapper under the GPL (or, better for them, the LGPL) and hope that people using their hardware will help them keep the compatibility between kernels.
It's a first step in the right direction (full Free Software driver) and this give them a first taste of Free Softare and we can only encourage them in it (by helping them keeping the compatibility and, when you submit the patch, tell them how great this would be for you and them if the driver was fully GPL'd).
Of course your post didn't mention wether the wrapper was Free (speech) but there would be little advantage to give this wrapper otherwise.
Re:Binary-only modules (Score:1)
Sigma Design: you have a problem. (Score:1)
>DVD Decoder, and they say they're working on >supporting Linux for a future product."
And you think this good ?
Sigma Design is taking is customer for *cash COW*:
They said , we will not release ANY infos about
our current card, but we will develope new card
for use with the linux operating system...
And all people which already have a card must
buy a new one....
This is called business
I will *NEVER* buy any sigma design card.
People should boycot sigma.
Re:Veritas to support Linux (Score:1)
Handspring/Visor support (Score:1)
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
Re:Linux on non intel(was Re:Linux is important!) (Score:1)
Re:Linux on non intel(was Re:Linux is important!) (Score:1)
Its just Fine (Score:1)
Thanks Sherm
Re:hard core real time 3D (Score:1)
big $$$. It's good newz for me because no-more
NT workstations in the shop!
Return to the community (Score:1)
RetroCool
IBM OSS Still mostly engineer driven (Score:4)
What you have to do is get a message to their marketing group that they do actually have Linux users and that demographic will get bigger for their hardware if they provide drivers. The best ways to do that is to E-Mail their tech support requesting that they send your message on to marketing or to open a suggestion defect requesting drivers and support for Linux. The justification is that the Linux market segment is growing and that Linux is the only non-MS OS on the market which is exhibiting such growth. Thus supporting Linux makes much more sense than supporting, say, OS/2, which IBM has been actively trying to kill for the last 5 years.
The more requests of this nature that go into the company, the more you'll see OSS awareness in the company grow. It'll probably be a couple of years yet before the entire company is completely clueful on the subject but I think that day will come.
We don't need announcements... (Score:5)
Linux is important! (Score:2)
We may sneer at hype here, but that's what drives big companies. Huge IPOs, hundreds of articles, and industry analysts coming out asking the question "Is Linux a Windows Killer?" all go to convince big companies that there's something interesting in the OSS model. And OSS can actually fit into the corporate mentality. And programmers obviously can still make a living programming, witness all the companies currently picking up programmers to do coding for OSS projects on company time.
Re:Why I don't like free software (Score:1)
Pissed (Score:2)
I mean, you people hate companies, you only want GPL and free beer.
We, the others, how really care about free speach get almost zero support.
Re:Linux on non intel(was Re:Linux is important!) (Score:1)
Here at RPI, us in the Electronics Club "rescued" a VAX 8530 mainframe that was being dumped. It would be nice if we could boot NetBSD on it, but it's one of those weird models that NetBSD doesn't seem to do. I guess we're gonna dig up a copy of VMS somewhere when we wire up the 3-phase outlet to power it up. Does anyone have any information otherwise?
Sigma will probably need some convincing. (Score:2)
a polite mail to arthur_bao@sdesigns.com
asking for Linuxsupport for current products.
The polite part can't be stressed to much.
Sigma Designs is NOT porting the H+ (Score:1)
This really sucks..
Write sigmadesigns and tell them we want an H+ Driver.
ChiefArcher
Re:Veritas to support Linux (Score:1)
Imagine how nice it would be to have a filesystem that allows me to automatically migrate data off to a tape or optical storage.
Job Center: Opportunities [veritas.com]
Abstract: Mountain View, CA VxFS Linux Engineer. description. Senior level (7+ years of experience) developer to port the VERITAS file system (VxFS) for Unix platforms to Linux. Product development experience in one or more of the following areas is a must: Operating system porting, Linux or UNIX internals.
William
Re:Sigma Design: you have a problem. (Score:1)
$0.02
--
http://www.drak.org [drak.org]
new side bar option? (Score:2)
Re:What happens when Linux goes out of fashion? (Score:1)
Re:Sigma Design: you have a problem. (Score:1)
Re:Why I don't like free software (Score:1)
> free software. The problem here is that in the scientific and mathematical communities it
is
> not companies that are doing work but individuals, who cannot profit from their work.
This is wrong. Many scientific companies openly publish
findings and many fund open research in Universities building themselves
good names amongst graduates who may eventually join them.
> Companies are also into scientific research beacause they can make profit from patents.
Some are yes. Some are not and simply fund open research. The Human
Genome project is a notable case of this funded by many companies who
wish to openly share the findings.
> It is the same with software. Companies are in it because they can make a profit.
Some are. Many simply have tasks to solve.
> With this profit thousands of programmers feed their children.
Many many programers are paid for the job of solving a problem than of
writing "Another Wordprocessor". Those are paid wether the software is
Free or Closed. Programmers will never starve. They will simply not be
reinventing wheel over again - instead their skills will be needed for
specific tasks.
> Those same programmers maybe write free software in their free time. Now the problem is
that non-software companies would use free software and make a profit of their own. Now why
are you willing to help a large corporation by reducing their cost on software expenditure.
Nobody writes free software so companies spend less. They do it becuase
they want to write the software. If others benefit (whoever that is)
fair play. Why would I not write a peice of software I wanted just
becuase someone I don't like MIGHT use it?
If a specific company wanted something specific for them written (such
as a web application) then they will always have to employ someone to
work for them since no one is likely to find the project worth doing for
nothing simply for the fun of it.
> Besides, software is not a mathematical truth or a scientific discovery. It is more like
a machine. All machines cost money.
Software is 100% mathematical. It is the epitome of Logic. Machines are
PHYSICAL objects. If we could copy machines at no cost, then I think
I'd find it fair play to "copy" a sports car and lots of petrol with
it. We are already allowed to tweak our cars AND RESELL THEM. Why not
software?
> Writing software involves a lot of creativity. Why don't artists give away their
paintings for free? Because they have to eat maybe?
Being paid to work does not in many cases revolve around the closed source SELLING of the final product. In the case of software, most
programmers are paid per contract or per hour to deliver working
solutions. No amount of free software will stop those eating. In fact it
makes them able to work faster and share problems.
> Imagine a large and sophisticated CAD package. Say 100 programmers spent a year
developing it. Why should it be free?
Publicity, support contracts, "to beat others who will do it
eventually". Lots of reasons. Matra just did that with a million dollar
CAD system. When NASA or some other agency looks at their Free OS in 3
years and sees the extremely cool CAD sub system provided by X company,
who do you think they'll want to work with when they need something
extra developing.
Regards,
Phill
Proposal: Occasional roundup column (Score:1)
anyways, just my $0.02 US
Tell a man that there are 400 Billion stars and he'll believe you
Re:Sigma will probably need some convincing. (Score:2)
I'm glad to hear that your company plans to release a DVD decoding (MPEG-2) card in the future with Linux support. I'm dissappointed to hear that no support is planned for the existing Hollywood Magic card (I've bought 2 - xmas gifts).
It might be true that by putting Linux support in a future card could get users to buy a second card - if no other card supports Linux before you release the new card.
But - if the ATI Rage Fury card decode DVD's acceptably with Linux - I won't need any additional hardware for DVD decoding.
So just annoucing future Linux support for a future product doesn't get you any sales in my book - in fact, it causes me to recommend to friends to *not* buy your current cards.
But the idea of future Linux support a good start
Paul
Re:mass market magazines (Score:1)
Plus there is a "Testing Fees" link - that's pretty lame.
Munky_v2
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
Re:Pissed (Score:2)
Linux currently is the media darling - everyone likes to see David vs. Goliath wars and many companies know that if they issue a press release with Linux on it- they're stock price jump. Nice, isn't it?
Regarding QNX - this is a COMMERCIAL operating system - the guys at QNX should talk to other vendors to port their apps to QNX. The problem is - QNX market share is WAY lower then Linux market share - and as it is - it's not worth to port it.
Re:Solving the problem -- the hard way (Score:1)
So overhaul Slashdot. Or if that's too hard, just make it a Slashbox and put it off on another page (or heck, another website even -- maybe someone else creating a website for this purpose and, through an rdf file, having a Slashbox, would be the best (or should I say easiest for /.) solution to the issue).
Re:Proposal: Linux announce page (Score:1)
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? (Score:1)
Weekly roundup. (Score:1)
The "weekly roundup" sounds like it makes plenty of sense to me.
Re:roundups! (Score:1)
Re:No source? Pfft. (Score:1)
Re:Linux on non intel(was Re:Linux is important!) (Score:1)
Tommorow: VMWare 2.0 beta (Score:4)
Tommorow there will be a public beta of VMWare 2.0, and they included support for SCSI, Sound-in, Major improvment of running Windows 95/98 as a guest, Shrinking disk, Larger then 2GB Virtual disk support, and other goodies.
Check tommorow: http://www.vmware.com
Re:"In a future product" (Score:1)
I disagree. If they were 'very good about giving users as much of what they want is possible', they could at the very least provide a closed solution.
I have one of these cards and love it, but despise the fact that it does not work in Linux. They have done absolutely nothing to help me with the product of theirs that I own, and apparantly are not willing to put forth any effort to change that. Do you think their response of 'throw away what you already paid good money for and buy our NEW board 'is considered 'good support'? HECK NO!
For all we know, you could be working for them and trying to do damage control. Just a thought...
News Today (Score:1)
I want to read about companies that have support, not just anounce it. And new OS projects that are starting or are significantly changing. Is IBM doing anything for Linux? Does Creative have linux software? I want to hear about companies offering software not just drivers. Does Iomega have Gnome Zip utilities? Who is GPLing anything?
I may be the only one but I bought the Linux Version of Quake because ID is supporting Linux not just announcing support. I could give feed back with my $$
I'd like to see Linux news follow my perspective and start tracking companies involvment in Linux not just read about catch up by every company under the sun.
YMMV.
Cheers Andrew
Probably most companies are like this (Score:2)
Indeed. In fact, I would expect most companies to be like this. Management is generally only good at keeping people in line and on the job (and sometimes not even that). It always seems to be the engineers and techies "in the trenches" who know which way the wind is blowing first. No great surprise there. Of course, with a company as large as IBM (Incredibly Big Monolith), inertia plays that much bigger a role, reaction time is much slower, and some parts of IBM will still be swinging around when The Next Big Thing is happening.
Small steps Ellie (Score:1)
He was asking about NetBSD (Score:1)
The poster was asking where the S/390 port of NetBSD was. He makes the valid point that both NetBSD and Linux are widely ported to a large variety of platforms, and quibbling over who has the most support for obscure platforms is a waste of time and bandwidth.
Yeah! (Score:2)
By the same token I have room in my philosophy to buy binary-only software such as games. However, show half-assed support for the game (Such as a huge feature mismatch between Windows and Linux versions) and I may get pissed off and never buy anything from your company again. If you're not going to open the source up, you damn well better be willing to commit to maintaining it yourself. DOS/Windows users might be willing to accept game companies doing half-assed jobs on their software -- certainly I've seen enough games where the coding was obviously done by brain dead chimpanzees. Linux users are a more demanding crowd, though. If you're going to put out software that sucks, we don't want you here.
Fruit of the Loom Supports Linux! (Score:1)
Re:Why I don't like free software (Score:1)
Walt
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? Probably no (Score:2)
Unless he agreed this with ALL contributors to the code, he doesn't have any power to override the existing licencing terms. Those terms (GPL) eitehr permit binary only drivers (or are unable to prohibit them) or they don't.
True, but I didn't hear about any developer complaining, in which case they would have to retire his code from the kernel.
If you are not happy you can fork the kernel and make it truly GPL, but don't count on us to follow you and don't forget to call it otherwise than Linux (Lunix if you want, or Trollix).
Re:Handspring/Visor support (Score:1)
These things are what usually brings me to slashdot.
Rikard
-----
Re:It isn't that bad... (Score:1)
Not the first open source online RPG, btw (Score:3)
They've got over a dozen people working on the project, including both coders and artists. There's definitely room for more help though. (I'm not directly involved in the project, although I will be as soon as I can find more time.)
Click the link in my sig for more info.
RMS comments from the ALSA list (Score:4)
Quickcams (Score:1)
Re:News Today (and a DVD support question) (Score:1)
Creative Labs has the Creative Open Source [creative.com] web page with the Sound Blaster Live! sound card module (the emu10k1).
I may be the only one but I bought the Linux Version of Quake because ID is supporting Linux not just announcing support. I could give feed back with my $$.
You're not the only one, buddy! I bought Q3A for Linux too. Now if only I can get my tin box soon...
Off-topic: Assuming the Sigma people did finish their Linux-compatible DVD decoder product, what will the OpenDVD and LiViD people think of it? If the Linux software to run the decoder is GPL'd (assuming the decryption engine is done in hardware only -- programming calls to access the engine, but not the engine itself), will the OpenDVD/LiViD people still be satisfied with the source code?
--
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? Probably no (Score:1)
As I think was clear from my comment I'm not at all sure that the GPL does (or can from the way it's constructed) prohibit linking to binary modules.
Of course it does, this is the very point of the GPL to do so, unless you call it by its "normal" interface you have to put it under the GPL (i.e. if you integrate Gnu tar in your program, then your program must be GPL'd but if you make a front-end to Gnu tar that call it like if you were in a shell then your program doesn't have to be GPL'd).
I do not find at all acceptable your notion that the licence under which people have provided their code can be ignored just as long as they don't actively complain. Do you extend this principle to all licence violations?
I don't either but this is a particular case where the originator of the software, a person respected by millions of people, decided to interpret the GPL in a particular way (change that make it look like the LGPL BTW), if he was to change it to proprietary software (which would be a MAJOR change) then a lot of people would fight him I think.
Anyway, at the beginning Linux's license was more strict than the GPL given that you couldn't sell it for money, he then changed it to the GPL, would you prefer to have Linux under this older license?
Re:Gear CDR too (Score:1)
Horrible experience meaning having to spend large amounts of time with their tech support to find undocumented entries in their ini files to get it to work. Also many coasters were produced after getting it to work. I found Nero to work much better.
Re:Aureal's Linux drivers violate GPL? (Score:1)
Re:Leave this to Linux Weekly News (Score:1)
Re:Leave this to Linux Weekly News (Score:2)
Lest you think this is unsubstantiated, read some of Linux Weekly News. How could slashdot have sunk so low as to not post an article by The Gartner Group? That's some important press, and it sounds like it's getting better. Heck, I haven't even seen a good Linux opinion story in a while, and I like to see what the mainstream is being told even when the articles are mostly just recycled. This is more important, because this is what the *corporations* are being told.
(Patiently waiting for a Linux+Crusoe server announcement. Hopefully they'll wait a bit before the other-VLIW-chip-makers try to crush them...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
Re:Sigma Design: you have a problem. (Score:1)
Re:Sigma Designs is NOT porting the H+ (Score:1)
I've begun the very basic framework of such a driver, hoping I could (by examining the device's memory space) figure out something, but all I can do so far is read the memory space - I don't yet know what to do from there. (I'm guessing once the software configures the device, by telling it where to output video (to TV-out or to VGA overlay, and if on overlay, video mode characteristics, overlay origin and dimensions, key color, antijitter mode, brightness/contrast/saturation, etc) it starts feeding MPEG frames into a buffer area in its address space, but I only have my suspicions about it, and no way to determine the veracity of them...)
Sigh. I'd like to be involved, but who knows if they have any interest at all in supporting Linux (yes, I know about their claim about a future product supporting DVD on Linux - they've been claiming that for awhile now).
Maybe LWN could make a profile page (Score:2)
Re:"In a future product" (Score:2)
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Re:We don't need announcements... (Score:2)
Recently someone on USENET started a petition for printer drivers for Linux (Winprinter stuff).
Lots of commotion, much rejoycing. The scary thing was that very few people expressed that the petition should be for *documentation* and not (or not exclusively) for binary-only drivers.
I would not ask for source of a HW vendor's drivers as long as they publish the HW specs. If they have "10+ years of software development invested in these drivers", I understand that they don't want to publish their code. However, if they publish the HW specs there can be the usual open-source alternative. If their drivers are so much better than what the programmer community can crank up, so be it. If I need the extra edge I can decide to use their binary driver, they can even ask for money for it. If I'm happy with the open stuff, I use that one. If I use my own homemade OS, I can still use their HW because I have the specs.
That's my standpoint, of course. I do not consider myself as hardcode as RMS but current trends in Linux user circles seem to shift the emphasis from the "open" operating system to the "alternative to Windows" which is worrysome, IMHO.
Kocsonya s.k.
Well said, sir! (Score:2)
On a side note, I'm glad that I could help provoke such intelligent talk with my original post, and help show that good things still come from Slashdot.
Re:Pissed (Score:2)
If it's under the GPL, you have the code...
If you have the code, you can port it to other OSes..
The BSDs seem to work fine with GPL stuff, SCO has the skunkware CD.. It's not our fault that Be or QNX don't port the GPL software over and submit their changes back to the tree.. If you want more apps, help port over the libs and such. GNX and BeOS both are Unixy enough to allow easy porting (compared to Win32) of libs and apps.
And just because the code is GPLed, doesn't mean the software is free (like Quake -- GPLed code, pay for the pack file)..
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Re:Linux is important! (Score:2)
Well, more like 7 years ago; the first FreeBSD came out in late 1993. [freebsd.org]
The AT&T lawsuit might have contributed to that, at least in part.
Re:Not the first open source online RPG, btw (Score:2)
Definitely can use more help. We've actually got about three or four dozen active developers [worldforge.org], plus maybe another fifty or a hundred semi-active developers. There's well over two hundred registered with developer accounts and subscribed to our mailing lists [worldforge.org].
We're especially looking for webmaster types (got a lot of online docs to clean up and maintain) these days. We've got coders aplenty but would never turn away more. ;-) Musicians and artists are strongly valued, we've got a good team of them so far but always need more.
Last year we put out a skeleton demo, which is available from our Downloads [worldforge.org] page. (We'd hoped Slashdot would post an announce about it, but no dice.)
LibAtlas is our "Crown Jewels" - a result of a full year of design, planning, peer reviewing, and general hair pulling. It's a standard(izable) networking protocol suitable for games and for other data-type-rich applications. We'll try to post an announcement here (ok, probably won't get posted; watch our site) once we've had time to write docs and some sample apps.
One thing worth noting is that WorldForge is producing a number of other things besides the game itself. We've developed several libraries and tools which we've independently released on Freshmeat and SourceForge (libuta, for instance, the GUI library for SDL, is developed by our team members.) We've got several project management tools in development that other open source projects will find invaluable. Plus, just to be different we actually practice what we preach and make ALL of the source to our tools, apps, art, music, and etc. openly available for public download and reuse. ;-)
We think we might be able to kill a bunch of birds for the Free Software community, by taking the extra step of designing our systems to be as game-neutral as possible, and have made our project infrastructure very robust. Thus, we can directly help any other Game Development Projects with roughly similar needs as us. So we'd like to welcome any GPL-compliant game development projects to come on by and discuss joining forces to develop mutually beneficial libraries, apps, or other tools.
Keep an eye on our News [worldforge.org] page for the latest developments. If you're interested in joining in the fun, head to our joining [worldforge.org] page.
Re:Merant and RIMS porting to Linux (Score:2)