Posted on 03/08/2006 5:49:56 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc. believes in offering Linux on the desktop, server, and workstation. What he doesn't believe in, for now, is giving Linux full support on the desktop. In an exclusive interview, Dell explained his company's Linux desktop strategy to DesktopLinux.com's Steven J. Vaughan Nichols.
"People are always asking us to support Linux on the desktop, but the question is: 'Which Linux are you talking about?'," Dell asked.
(Excerpt) Read more at desktoplinux.com ...
It's used loosely as usually seen in the computer industry. Think hardware, as in "commodity boxes." Any industrialized country can build them, it's not a specialty thing anymore, and prices have fallen because of it. Same with software now, any industrialized country can do it, and the prices have been falling for a long time (even on software with no real open source alternative in its target market, such as Photoshop).
With this fact, it is useless to worry about China getting an operating system. They easily have the resources to write their own, just as good as Linux, so them getting Linux only saves them a little time and deprives proprietary OS vendors of money (GE's real objection).
It is useless to worry about China? Ridiculous, as is the notion they could build something equal on their own. Nor could Cuba, Iran, North Korea, etc, all of which are standardizing on the free software you want to give them. You even allow them to rename and resell the products under a different name, as if there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and attack those of us who know there is.
So is writing OS code somehow mystically different than writing application code?
Where do you think all those Chinese programmers are being trained? The horse has left the barn. Linux is not a security threat. Deal with it.
No, but it is useless to worry about them getting an OS.
Ridiculous, as is the notion they could build something equal on their own.
You seem to have this strange idea that all of China is a backwards country, when in fact they've been graduating CS majors and engineers by the hundreds of thousands and sending students out all over the world. Also remember that high-tech Hong Kong belongs to them now.
You even allow them to rename and resell the products under a different name, as if there's absolutely nothing wrong with that
They could do the same with Solaris under Sun's CDDL, nothing in the license prevents it. In fact, the CDDL is even better for them since they could keep more of their code proprietary, just releasing the source for the CDDL portion of their product. Oh, nevermind, you like Solaris being open source so that's okay.
Oh boy, more defense if not outright praise for the Chicoms! Who by the way have never produced a respectable operating system of any kind on their own.
Don't forget to praise the Cubans and North Koreans too, since you must think they could create anything worthwhile on THEIR own as well.
I'm a bit confused by what you mean here. You could do the same thing. You could take a Linux distro, downloaded for free, and release it with a few modifications as "BrassBuzzardLinux" if you wanted to. Why is that a bad thing? Plenty of Americans have done this with that Finnish operating system, so why not you or the Chinese?
Open Solaris is not the same as Solaris, and if anyone attempted forking of Open Solaris they could be sued by Sun for patent infringement, making forking of it very unlikely.
Oops, must not use shorthand or GE will call me on that insignificant fact to derail the discussion.
Your point is that the Chinese get an OS for free. They can do that with OpenSolaris. And wouldn't you know it, they use Chinese on their web site to promote the open aspect. Go ahead, download a live CD of OpenSolaris and have fun, just like the Chinese can. Make some changes and redistribute, just like the Chinese can.
they could be sued by Sun for patent infringement, making forking of it very unlikely.
The CDDL grants a license for the patents. Forking is allowed. The only legal problem in forking is trademark -- "Red Solaris" probably wouldn't fly with Sun's legal department.
Wrong again...I viciously attack those who lie about me. It's as if you're whining that I'm defending myself against your blatant dishonesty and intentional mischaracterizations. As if somehow, you're the victim. Sheesh, what a loser.
BTW, thought you were leaving?
"A parallel. Let's say Dick Cheney says "You have all these people running around in Russia saying 'I'm a communist,' and they'll fail because of it." You then say he's a communist using his quote "I'm a communist."
Any halfway intelligent person could understand that. I'm sure GE's mischaracterization is totally intentional. He KNOWS what the truth is, and he ignores it to present a deliberately incorrect picture of someone else. That's the crux of his argument...attribute things to people that they didn't really say, and then argue with it as if they did.
He can't stick with facts, because he knows he'll lose. He has to lie, and then believe his own lies as if they are true, and then when faced with them, ignore them and pretend that they were never uttered. But, what with cut and paste and all, this is not the ideal medium to do that.
His motto should be "Domination through Obfuscation".
That's pretty much the definition of libel, and he's repeated it after being told it was libel.
Halfmanhalfamazing, why don't you sue and get some $$$? ;^)
Unfortunately, you couldn't prove much in the way of damage to reputation since nobody here believed the BS.
True. He knows that I never posted once about Google OS, about Linux adoption within IBM, or about Dell making Linux desktops. But, he just attributed all that to me anyway so he could "win".
Of course, you ask him to prove it and he can't, but requests to back up his words with proof don't seem to faze him. He just posts your history and proclaims himself the winner.
But, that's all you can do when your arguments, and possibly your entire life, is based on lying.
One thing I'll say for him: his method of debate is remarkably uncontaminated by logic or reason.
Open Solaris is only beta code, and not all of it is released under CDDL anyway, as there are portions that are still binary. Sun refers to Open Solaris on their own website as a "project" that provides "an open development environment", and "is not a product offering".
http://www.opensolaris.com/os/about/faq/general_faq/
And, despite your claims to the contrary, any attempted fork would leave them open to patent lawsuits. Again from Sun's website, read the language of section 2.1(b), patent protections are only granted to those using quote "original software", which would clearly not include any attempted fork.
http://www.sun.com/cddl/cddl.html
Therefore obviously Solaris is not the same as Open Solaris, Open Solaris is not fully open and is only beta code, and if you try to fork it you could be sued for patent infringement.
Poor Chicoms will have to keep using the free copies of Linux you boys hand them on a silver platter.
Why is it a bad thing for you or the ChiComs to be able release your own versions of a Finnish operating system?
The answer is obviously because every country like China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea etc will just take the best version from the US and slap their name on it, just like the Chinese do when they rename Red Hat to Red Flag. In my opinion they shouldn't be getting that technology from us at all, but especially not for free. Of course I'm not a one world globalist either, that sees countries like those I just listed as equal partners in anything.
That might matter if it had stayed in Finland, and had US companies like IBM and even our own ignorant government not invested billions (yes with a "b") in its development. But since they did, and still do, that technology shouldn't be legally given away for free, especially to regimes that offer us nothing in return, or even worse may use it against us one day militarily
Yeah, instead, they should buy copies of Windows and use THAT against us militarily.
By the way...thought you were leaving?
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