In an amazing turn of events, CanoniSpire has merged with Novell, Red Hat, and Microsoft to form NovellHatSoft-CanoniSpire. The new conglomerate will produce Winux, a proprietary, Linux-based, Windows lookalike, which will come without the security flaws common to Windows.
NovellHatSoft-CanoniSpire has been lobbying congress to pass a "software rights management act" which will assign copyright for the Linux kernel and GNU utils to a new "GPLv0," which will be a non-viral, BSD-type license, written by the newly employed RMS, who accepted a job offer from the company this morning.
Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said "Finally, we have a Free Software solution which can challenge desktop Windows. Well, at least we have a Free Software-based solution which can challenge SnApple's new SolariMac Desktop," referring to the merger of Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer.
Steve Ballmer, who just hours ago had joined the Linux Foundation and was claiming to have accepted surrender, said he was "glad that the merger is under way," and hopes "to see it carried out to its logical conclusion by a Winux Vista release this summer."
Linus Torvalds was unavailable for comment.
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts
2007-04-01
2007-02-16
If GPL were software (and source code were multimedia)...
... The FSF would be against GPLv3.
Imagine: some software/music, say GCC, is released/distributed under GPLv2. People can do whatever they want with it: redistribute it, reuse it in their own source code/music, or whatever. Then GPLv3 comes out. Suddenly the software/music won't work on/play in your hardware/software.
How is this different from DRM?
The FSF has gone so far to fight against DRM that it has created some of its own. In my opinion, this is the same mistake Lenin made: a far right totalitarian regime was replaced by a far left totalitarian regime.
Viral licenses are incredibly dangerous because they put someone like the FSF in charge of something they didn't write: imagine Linux without the GNU utilities. So RMS, who wrote some section of the code, controls the whole.
I really hope this isn't true, so if someone disagrees please comment extensively.
Imagine: some software/music, say GCC, is released/distributed under GPLv2. People can do whatever they want with it: redistribute it, reuse it in their own source code/music, or whatever. Then GPLv3 comes out. Suddenly the software/music won't work on/play in your hardware/software.
How is this different from DRM?
The FSF has gone so far to fight against DRM that it has created some of its own. In my opinion, this is the same mistake Lenin made: a far right totalitarian regime was replaced by a far left totalitarian regime.
Viral licenses are incredibly dangerous because they put someone like the FSF in charge of something they didn't write: imagine Linux without the GNU utilities. So RMS, who wrote some section of the code, controls the whole.
I really hope this isn't true, so if someone disagrees please comment extensively.
2006-10-28
Update Concerning FF2.0 and Grandma-Friendly FOSS
I am in Atlanta this weekend on a double mission. Firstly, or at least nominally, I am here to help my Grandmother, who has been using Windows ME since the turn of the century and WordPerfect considerably longer, adjust to Windows XP and the modern world. It has taken considerable persuasion to get her to use the new XP box and not the old 98 monster in the attic.
Secondly and more personally, I am trying to win her over to the FOSS world. I have, within the past several hours, installed Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org, and AVG free. That may not seem like much, but she proceeded to ask me if I could come down one time and install Linux on her computer. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! I must have done something right.
As for Firefox 2.0, I simply love it. The two add-ons I used to install immediately when I installed Firefox were Tab Mix Plus and some theme, usually Abstract PC. Tab Mix Plus has been pretty much completely incorporated and the horrendous 1.5 theme has been replaced by a theme reminiscent of the Ubuntu Human theme.
PS: If you are reading this, said Grandmother has read this post without forcing me to unpost it.
Secondly and more personally, I am trying to win her over to the FOSS world. I have, within the past several hours, installed Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org, and AVG free. That may not seem like much, but she proceeded to ask me if I could come down one time and install Linux on her computer. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! I must have done something right.
As for Firefox 2.0, I simply love it. The two add-ons I used to install immediately when I installed Firefox were Tab Mix Plus and some theme, usually Abstract PC. Tab Mix Plus has been pretty much completely incorporated and the horrendous 1.5 theme has been replaced by a theme reminiscent of the Ubuntu Human theme.
PS: If you are reading this, said Grandmother has read this post without forcing me to unpost it.
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