Posted on 01/21/2005 9:34:02 AM PST by ShadowAce
Linus Torvalds once led a ragtag band of software geeks. Not anymore. Here's an inside look at how the unusual Linux business model increasingly threatens Microsoft
Five years ago, Linus Torvalds faced a mutiny. The reclusive Finn had taken the lead in creating the Linux computer operating system, with help from thousands of volunteer programmers, and the open-source software had become wildly popular for running Web sites during the dot-com boom. But just as Linux was taking off, some programmers rebelled. Torvalds' insistence on manually reviewing everything that went into the software was creating a logjam, they warned. Unless he changed his ways, they might concoct a rival software package -- a threat that could have crippled Linux. "Everybody knew things were falling apart," recalls Larry McVoy, a programmer who played peacemaker. "Something had to be done."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
So what you're saying is that you'd prefer to take code without giving any credit to the authors, like the GPL requires?
Again you completely ignore my posts stating that the actual cost of the O/S is a very small line on a budget. You continue to harp on the issue of cost while ignoring this simple fact.
Commercial vendors like Sun were completely unable or unwilling to switch their market strategy and that is what brought about their downfall. I remember in 1999 when Solaris x86 was finally stable and a good candidate for production use. Sun refused to do any further development work on it. They stuck to their recommended hardware list which excluded almost all laptops which made it all but useless. They had a great product but didn't support it and finally announced they were going to EOL it. There was enough outcry from users that they changed their mind. By that point everyone I know who was using Solaris x86 switched over to Linux/FreeBSD/OpenBSD.
The vast majority of users do not care what O/S they are running. They care about productivity. If a free movement can provide a better product then a large commercial entity with billions of dollars behind them, then so be it. The commercial entity deserves to fail. That is the way business works.
Ah, the old "inevitable" theory. Extremely doubtful, they wouldn't be stealing our technology implementations left and right if they could do it on their own.
I understand your bitterness, but keeping some things secret would harm us more than it would do to them.
If you know anything about military technology, it's based on levels of secrecy known as "classification", or "classified technology". I suppose keeping those secrets have harmed us as well.
Gold Eagle Out.
I'll try again: technology != implementation.
The technology is already out of the bag, because the inventors decided to disclose it to the whole world, even to the expense of disclosing it to China too!
Implementation only requires cheap workmanship.
About the classified stuff, that's why I think that's a problem of the NSA, not of individual inventors.
/me Out too. Handshake.
Just don't try it with a wireless card. You'll run screaming for the door.
Do mean you want a file server that Windows PCs can save files to?
If so, all you have to do is install Samba server on a Linux box.
Sounds good. I also have Exceed Hummingbird.
"that includes Windows."
In your opinion.
Yes--in my opinion.
You know, at one point I attempted to discuss these issues with you, thinking that somewhere in there was a logical person. But after reading the same inane, ad hominem, dishonest, non sequitur comments designed only to denegrate Linux sprinkled about over the course of, what? years now, I can only conclude that you are a one-trick pony. You are a cipher, a zero. An empty sum. Whatever goes in, the same thing comes out. Always. When you are proven wrong, which happens quite often, you switch the argument or pull out your "communist" card. You are some piece of work.
Thus, there is no point in engaging you whatsoever, as whether you intend it or not, your behavior constitutes nothing but trolling, as it only invites flames. You do not intend to educate, only incite, imply and denegrate through false innuendo. You are a tool, you are a liar, and you are boring.
The lap-top will never handle it, though. RAM way too low.
Thanks a million, E Pluribus.
KDE got feature envy from gnome some time ago and it has gotten fat. There are some dirtro's that have much lighter demands on memory (its actuall more a function of the x-interface than Linux itself). if youre looking for a perminate os look at Suse it has some lightweight GUI's.. I think Fedora comes with some as well. You want to look for FVWM.
You claim that Solaris "owns the greatest market share of all available Unix products in the US.".
In a New York Times article article dated Nov. 15, 2004, John Markoff reports "Sun currently has about a million Solaris users around the world, according to an estimate by the International Data Corporation, a market research firm."
Last week, Apple reported that their Unix-based Mac OS X operating system has over 14 million active users.
According to your homework, 1 million is greater than 14 million. No wonder you're tired.
If it's what they want, then yes. The GPL credits the authors of the original code, just not with money, fruit, and naked girls.
Sure you did.
inane, ad hominem, dishonest, non sequitur, troll, flames, incite, imply, denegrate, innuendo, a tool, a liar
LOL, yeah, you sound like a very, very reasonable and dignified individual. Not really, of course, actually just a random run of the mill linux lover. Angry and dark, and dependent on free stuff from others.
Do you use knoppix much? I've got some predictable tech questions in a couple of days. I want to play with it for a while and get a feel of it, and see what I can figure out. I think I'm lacking the root password, though.
Your link doesn't work, requires a paid subscription to the New York Times which I suppose you must own. But I'll admit that I may have gotten confused when posting the Unix chart from 2000, apparently Apple's products weren't based on Unix at that point.
The bigger issue still remains, in the overall *nix family, Linux has just passed Apple, and the lead is expected to grow. Being the owner of several Apple systems throughout their history myself, I'm extremely disapointed to know that instead of folks the world over purchasing a true US Unix product from an American IT company like Apple, more and more are just going to be downloading some free copy of Linux instead. If you'd rather argue that Apple is second place to Linux instead of Sun, I could really care less. They both are losing to Linux.
While I don't use Knoppix a whole lot, I could probably figure out your questions. The root password for Knoppix doesn't exist. Just type "su" at the prompt and you'll be the root user, I believe. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll figure it out for you.
As far as lightweight Window managers are concerned, FC3 (I believe) also has XFce which is a nice, lightweight WM. I've heard good things about it.
To set the root password on Knoppix, start up a command line console, get root privileges by entering "su -l" then enter "passwd" and set it to anything you like.
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