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 ...
The CD is SUSE 9.1 and the DVD is SUSE 9.2 Professional
Great article. Thanks. I think I'm beginning to understand why big companies such as Adobe don't write for Linux -- because under the GNU licensing agreement they would not be able to charge for their work. Am I right?
Knoppix, be a man and install Debian. It may be the hardest single thing to install, but when it's running, you never have to worry about it again. Plus, apt-get has to be the most powerful utility in Linux. I know other version of Linux now have similar features, but Debian has the largest repository of programs available to it.
Under the GPL, the code has to be open source. You can't exactly charge for a program when you can find the source at other locations. But if you just want to view Adobe files, xpdf and gv should be able to open most of them with no problems.
Nope. There are commercial products available for Linux. Oracle is probably the best know one, though Adobe is also coming out with a Linux product.
Writing a commercial application that does not use GPL'ed code means you do not have to distribute the source code. Hence, it can be as proproetary as you like.
Most commercial linux products do rely on the LGPL license for their linkages to GPL'ed libraries. This license is different in that you don't have to GPL your own code to use a LGPL library.
Wow. That was a very well written, brief history / explanation of Linux. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.
Make sure you grab the adblock extension for Firefox. Neat little feature to suppress advertisements from showing up. Foxnews has to be one of the worst websites for junk advertising. With this feature, it loads up much faster.
Thanks. Well, I'm starting to get it.
Linux Inc? LOL, Red Hat and Novell are both dropping like a rock on the stock market if you haven't noticed, been going on for months check it yourself. Red Hat down another 4% today already, the stock was $30 last summer and is now down to $10, with no end in sight.
You got it. Check the top 100 selling software apps at Amazon.com, not one Linux application is listed.
Apparently business is good but not good enough to justify trees that grow to the sky.
Why wait? Get Firefox NOW!!!
Golden Eagle: You got it. Check the top 100 selling software apps at Amazon.com, not one Linux application is listed.
As appears to be his job, GE is again being deceptive. Developers are perfectly free to write and sell proprietary software that runs on Linux. There aren't many end-user commercial programs for several reasons (one of which is that the freely available applications are quite good), but the GPL has nothing to do with it.
Did you read the article?
I'm not on broadband, so, I avoid "broadband only" websites, like FOX News.
Yes, I found it pretty ill informed. No mention of the 283 apparent patent violations found by OSRM, no mention of how Red Hat has lost 70% of their value in the last 8 months, and no mention of the countless versions of Red Hat and Novell being copied and renamed the world over, without a dime back to the US economy. Pretty irresponsible, IMO.
http://lwn.net/Distributions/
I'm not interested in downloading a 650 MB file on a dialup connection.
Oracle puts code out that runs on Linux but it is not GPL. Adobe could write for Linux and keep its code to itself so long as it did not use GPL code within its application. As long as you dont (a) put GPL code in your application, or (b) statically link to GPL code you can write a closed source app for Linux.
Oracle, Veritas, BEA, EMC, VMWare and others all write closed source and very expensive application that are closed source..
But you can write non GPL code that runs on Linux, see oracle and others. Just dont put GPL code in your application..
I can hardly wait for Microsoft Linux to come out. After that, they're releasing Linux++.
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