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Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

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Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#21
post #7
post #4

One problem with releasing your code as open source is it can get used in ways that you don't approve of, eg weapon systems by the military or crapware by the carriers.

This is why the GPL is better than Apache. The military would have to release their code.

That's one of the things about classified systems. They might violate your patents and your copyright, but how would you know if you don't even know they exist?

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#22
post #4

One problem with releasing your code as open source is it can get used in ways that you don't approve of, eg weapon systems by the military or crapware by the carriers.

Regardless of what the law says, governments can and do take whatever they want, so that shouldn't dissuade anybody from making software free.

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#23
post #3

I still have a problem with using a VM on a phone and having GC on a phone. (I also have a problem with Objective C's function call overhead.)

Why, if the resulting products are performant and capable?

drains battery too fast

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#24
post #12
post #3

I still have a problem with using a VM on a phone and having GC on a phone. (I also have a problem with Objective C's function call overhead.)

This isn't hard realtime systems. Nobody is going to die because it takes a few seconds extra for them to download updates (the human brain takes a lot longer to process it anyway). And JIT compiled java can be faster than native code, even in situations where you would not expect it (such as signal handling code).

Signal handling code on android phones is not only native, it runs on separate core too.

But your points are true anyway.

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#25
post #4

One problem with releasing your code as open source is it can get used in ways that you don't approve of, eg weapon systems by the military or crapware by the carriers.

Yes, it is, but it is a problem you must accept, even Stallman thinks so: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/open-sauce-software-10006241/st...

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they shared it with a contractor?

Then they would have to share it with the contractor under the terms of the GPL. The contractor could then release it further. More likely though, the contractor would be brought in to work on the project and the military would argue that it wasn't distributing the code.

> The contractor could then release it further.

Unless the contract said that they couldn't. And even if a specific contract didn't stop a given contractor from redistributing some GPL technology, how many contractors are going to risk being banned from future contracts because they redistributed?

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#28
post #4

One problem with releasing your code as open source is it can get used in ways that you don't approve of, eg weapon systems by the military or crapware by the carriers.

One other thing people forget to consider when creating intellectual property of closed source or open source is that copyright does not last forever. Every piece of intellectual property you create will eventually belong to the public domain, albeit after 75-100+ years.

In the US, congress has been extending the terms of copyrights quickly enough that they effectively do last forever, despite an explicit "limited times" requirement in the constitution (which the supreme court unfortunately made meaningless).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_copyright#United_Stat...

Re: Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

#30
post #7
post #4

One problem with releasing your code as open source is it can get used in ways that you don't approve of, eg weapon systems by the military or crapware by the carriers.

This is why the GPL is better than Apache. The military would have to release their code.

What if the code is classified?
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