Posted on 10/10/2006 4:56:51 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
Linux or open source seems to thrive wherever Left governments rule. And as Kerala schools log Microsoft out and boot open source systems, Linux world is buzzing with excitement over possibilities in the communist-ruled states. Though West Bengal and Tripura have to go whole hog to adopt a free software model, ideological closeness is more than evident. Kerala, most insiders’ feel, is turning out to be Richard Stallman's happiest hunting ground. His personal vibes with Velikakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan, even from VS's pre-chief minister era, are in play. It’s a picture watching the duo cozying together in a similar attire — Stallman in a crumbled white T-shirt and VS in homely sleeveless white banian. Secretly, people do wonder what Class VII drop-out Marxist patriarch chitchats with whiz-kid of the Red Hat business-model. However, those who attended a Stallman seminar on FOSS, could clearly see that Linux and Left are on the same wavelength.
(Excerpt) Read more at financialexpress.com ...
Source code is, at its heart, text.
We do not restrict the publication of text without extremely pressing reason. It's that First Amendment thingie.
We can't easily stop them from getting the hardware now, even though there are some ideas in that link describing some Republican congressmen, but that's why it's so critical we stop the software. They've got most all of the hardware, now you want to give them most of the software too? What would be left? Not much...
What, Linux? They already have that and can copy it at will.
Linux is still overall a very immature O/S, as indicated by your guess it wasn't even being used for supercomputer purpose. Are you really comfortable giving away to foreign governments for free all future enhancements that any American company or government organization may come up with at some point in the future?
We've already had the NSA and NASA both give critical clustering and security enhancements away too, would you like our DoD to now start giving free improvements away? Ever heard of Red Hawk Linux, that is to be used by our Navy for the latest AEGIS cruiser systems? Should we allow that to be freely copied and distributed as the GPL license created by the leftist Stallman in the article demands?
Are you aware that the Chinese already make free copies of "Red Hat" Linux, and rename them legally to "Red Flag"? Should we allow them to also copy the Red Hawk Linux, and rename it "Red Star"? All future versions? This is somehow in our interest? To give this stuff away? If so, we can agree to disagree. Thanks.
Those requiring lightweight desktops have many options, none of which require them to stoop to hobbling themselves with CDE. I've used XFCE, and like it in many ways. It works great with small distros intended for use as a security tool.
As usual, you are full of crap and a wanker. Go play in traffic, but watch out for them copyleftists. They are out to get you.
Oh I'm sure. But so far they're finding it tough to hide.
Dude, wake up, we're making jokes about you.
What else could you possibly do? You obviously can't defend the indefensible, without talking in circles or distorting the facts, which continues to fail since you lose every last point. And you've still not shown one single reason why anyone should find any of this funny. Nor can you.
Maybe what we need to do is send out the black helicopters and send secret agents into every home on the planet and round up every copy of Linux everywhere. Then we'll be safe.
I don't know. Logic and reality haven't worked with you, so now we're just humoring ourselves at your expense.
And you've still not shown one single reason why anyone should find any of this funny.
It's really simple. Just because someone downloaded a copy of Linux doesn't mean they're on the fast track to becoming a nuclear power. Now where did I put the URL for that free copy of "Uncle Marty's Deadly Pathogen Designer 2.1"? I hear it comes with the new anthrax plug-in. Yummy!
Open source is a good check on the artificial influence of monopolization (which is antithetical to the free enterprise system). Good for Linux.
What logic?
Just because someone downloaded a copy of Linux doesn't mean they're on the fast track to becoming a nuclear power.
You call that logic? Actually, the download is a necessary prerequisite step, so if you cared in any way about limiting nuclear proliferation, by logic you would be opposed to allowing it.
That's why such servers are often run from the command line -- no GUI running at all. BTW, this is something you can't do with Windows. It's also something you can do with OS X, but then you'd lose all the stuff that's accomplished through GPU acceleration.
So you don't mind the Linux now outselling the original American Unix products, too? The companies like Cray and Silicon Graphics, which have recently declared bankruptcy?
Earth to GE, you don't need a teraflop supercomputer to design a nuclear weapon. Oppenheimer didn't, Teller didn't. We, the Chinese and the Russians designed very powerful thermonuclear devices with less computational power than is in an iPod (and that's a British-designed chip -- horrors!).
Yep, Crazy Kim downloaded Linux and that's how he got the bomb. Forget about all the technical and material help from Clinton and the Pakistanis.
You want to know what makes high-power supercomputers useful to us in nuclear weapons these days? We abide by the test ban treaty, so we use simulations instead of actual tests. We have blown far more money in supercomputers and the scientists to write custom (and classified) simulation applications for them than it would have cost to just physically test them.
Kim and the mad mullahs don't have to worry about such restrictions. They don't need supercomputers to simulate because they can just detonate one and see what happens.
This is where I was talking about reality. Powerful commodity hardware killed Cray and SGI, not Linux. Pentium computers with workstation graphics cards costing only a few thousand dollars ended up being more powerful than ten thousand dollar MIPS machines with custom graphics. The Opteron caused Cray so much headache in HPC that they actually jumped on the Opteron bandwagon themselves.
I can't imagine why anyone would sit here and claim giving free supercomputer products to adverse governments isn't of consequence. You may feel that way, but it is obviously erroneous.
Without Linux, those U.S. supercomputer companies don't go bankrupt. Foreign governments don't instantly have the ability to build their own supercomputers, either. These are two unfortunate results of the introduction of Linux, whether you continue to deny the obvious exact relationships or not.
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