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Linux Software

Newsweek does Linux 26

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hopping-on-the-bandwagon dept.
Eugene Sotirescu writes "If anyone doubted that Linux is poised to break into the limelight, here's proof: a Newsweek article by Steve Levy, with all the right names, saying the right things, about the right system. "
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Newsweek does Linux More

Newsweek does Linux

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  • That's really sad.. The poster child of free software from day one was RMS, although esr was definitely there, too.. Not to take anything away from esr, but t's unfortunate that they didn't even mention RMS in the article...
  • can't hurt.
  • on page 3 the Newsweek article quotes Ed Muth:

    "No one was depending on Robin Hood to make the trains run on time ..."

    Bad metaphor, Ed, given the last famous person who was reputed to "make the trains run on time".

    (for you ./er's who aren't up on ancient history, that person was Benito Mussolini. Hmmm ... I guess someone should add Ed's image to the background of The Halloween Nightmare [tuxedo.org])

  • Hmmm, Larry A left a startup called yahoo to
    start va research. I wonder how he feels about
    it...
  • I bet they're only printing it because MS said that Linux was a 'threat' in the DOJ trial.. Anyone REALLY think that MS thinks is a threat?
  • Oh please...as the author of that sidebar, I think that categorizing the whole pieces as a piece about "how incredibly hard it is to use Linux" is inaccurate.

    Despite the great advances being made in usability for those who aren't very proficient with computers to begin with, I still think Linux is not ready for the average Windows user -- unless it is exquisitely pre-installed and configured by
    someone who knows what they are doing.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • While naysayers like analyst Merv Adrian of the Giga Group contend Linux is still "a cult product"

    You know I once heard of a cult TV show, something called the X-Files. Anyway, I think I heard something about a movie or something about it last summer. It's very obvious that anything of "cult" nature can become very mainstream.
  • And can software be open source if it _isn't_ freeware? If so how would that work? Can you really have something be truly open source if you still have a company that owns it?

    Well, one possible alternative is to release a piece of software under 2 licenses, like Troll Tech is doing with Qt. A free license for anyone to use for free software, and a commercial license for those who are developing proprietary software. The commercial license would likely include some kind of support contract.

    It seems to me fairly unlikely that software that has been open sourced is probably not going to exist much outside of the underground. Although that may not be a bad thing.

    You mean like Apache, BIND, INN, sendmail, Mozilla, Perl, Tcl, gcc and other little underground projects?

  • M$ is paranoid. And because they react so harshly, rightly so :-)

    Them what lives by the paranoia shall die by the paranoia.

    --
  • This is a very good article. It gets Linux out in front of a variety of people's faces. Most of the people who regularly read Newsweek are probably not computer geek-types. This is almost like hearing Linux mentioned on Nightline. Once one news outlet picks something up, the others usually follow. This is going to be a HUGE year for Linux.
  • Yes, the article is generally very good, very factual. But they insist on continuing the usual geek/nerd/hacker stereotype, which always ends up negative. The geek must be "pasty-skinned" so as to imply s/he never sees the light of day. (I don't know for sure, but was that store appearance mentioned in the article done in the middle of the summer, when people would easily get tans?) And the picture they use of Linus makes him out to look like a cross between Bill Gates and Steven King. I've seen plenty of decent pictures of him where he looks like an "average Joe," but that wouldn't fit Newsweek's intended image of him as a nerdy dweeb.

    ::sigh::

    Will the madness never end?

    -Augie
  • No, you're living in the future :)
  • Yes Richard M Stallman was the Free Software Guru long before Linus Torvalds and Eric Raymond. RMS ideas are a bit more extreme than the other two's. He is still the founder of FSF and should have been mentioned.
  • No, in the future!

    In the past programmers entered machine instructions directly, much more fun. So they got it all wrong ;-)
  • I think they meant tools to convert, not run.
    WordPerfect 8.0 runs on Linux without wine. I
    am sure they mean that Corel has tools they
    developed during WordPerfect's "porting", if
    they realy are going to release something like
    that we ARE in for a big year.

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