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Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

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Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#121

Post by whacko_quacko »

JohnFen wrote: post #94
throwaway_62022 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oracle does care about open source, to the extent that they have been the top Linux kernel contributor several times. Linux kernel is not entirety of Linux. Given that there is Oracle cloud and various hardware Oracle has to support, it will be almost unthinkable if Oracle did not contribute to Linux kernel. But - I will be interested in Oracle's support for broader Linux ecosystem. How about contributions to GCC,…

> Linux kernel is not entirety of Linux. Technically, yes, it is. "Linux" refers to the kernel, not to all of the other stuff you need on top of the kernel for a fully-formed OS. Although "Linux" is not used in that sense in the world at large anymore. But this distinction is why you see some people mentioning that you should say "Gnu/Linux" and the like when referring to the OS as whole.

You are "not even wrong", but that's all

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#122

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

This is wonderful trolling on the part of Oracle, I bet they had a lot of fun composing this piece. I just wish they tossed in "We stand by GNU/Linux"[0] - that would be the frosting on the cake.

[0] Yeah, I realize that would be difficult - both IBM and Oracle hate FSF equally.

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#124

Post by lproven »

delfinom wrote: post #77
JohnFen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How Oracle handles Java (business-wise, not in technological terms) is one of the things that tells me that Oracle is still the toxic company it's always been.

They also buried a call home into the VBox Guest Extensions and eventually started sending legal demands to companies as well. Because while VBox was open license, the VBox Guest Extensions have a non-commercial use license by default but that doesn't stop VBox from asking you to install them innocently on the first run. Also 3 years ago, the guy in charge of a Oracle database we had (now migrated to MSSQL) accidenta…

> They also buried a call home into the VBox Guest Extensions

This is incorrect and actively misleading, because you are conflating 2 different things.

The Virtualbox Guest Additions are 100% FOSS and are included in many distros, including Ubuntu -- `apt install -y virtualbox-guest-x11` -- as well as being an optional extra with VirtualBox itself as an ISO file.

E.g. https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.8/VBoxGuestAd...

The Virtualbox Extension Pack is a proprietary optional extra.

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.8/Oracle_VM_V...

There is no such thing as the "Guest Extensions".

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#125

Post by lproven »

everybodyknows wrote: post #101

> Oracle has always made Oracle Linux binaries and source freely available to all. Hmmm, well yes, there's https://yum.oracle.com/oracle-linux-isos.html But no one here on HN in my memory has mentioned trying to run it on, say, a personal desktop. What's the reality of this?

It's RHEL. Or rather, it's CentOS with the serial numbers filed off.

Of course you can. It is a snapshot of an old version of Fedora, with a lot of extra Q&A, and an extremely restricted set of packages. E.g. you get GNOME and nothing else.

But if you don't need many drivers, or you're running on old hardware that is directly supported, sure you can run it as a desktop.

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#126

Post by chasil »

whacko_quacko wrote: post #121
JohnFen wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux kernel is not entirety of Linux. Technically, yes, it is. "Linux" refers to the kernel, not to all of the other stuff you need on top of the kernel for a fully-formed OS. Although "Linux" is not used in that sense in the world at large anymore. But this distinction is why you see some people mentioning that you should say "Gnu/Linux" and the like when referring to the OS as whole.

You are "not even wrong", but that's all

There are more users of Bionic Linux libc than there are of GNU glibc.

No, Linux is not always GNU.

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#128

Post by jameson71 »

whacko_quacko wrote: post #121
JohnFen wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux kernel is not entirety of Linux. Technically, yes, it is. "Linux" refers to the kernel, not to all of the other stuff you need on top of the kernel for a fully-formed OS. Although "Linux" is not used in that sense in the world at large anymore. But this distinction is why you see some people mentioning that you should say "Gnu/Linux" and the like when referring to the OS as whole.

You are "not even wrong", but that's all

Linux is the kernel. Let’s not ignore Mr. Stallman’s contributions to open source software.

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#129

Post by shantnutiwari »

zeroxfe wrote: post #56

The timing of this is hilarious: https://twitter.com/chatsidhartha/status/1649484240952721408 Oracle just sent a legal threat to "Rust for Javascript" to remove "Javascript" from their name. (Oracle owns the "Javascript" trademark.)

>>Oracle just sent a legal threat to "Rust for Javascript" to remove "Javascript" from their name.

Bullshit.

As a Reddit comment pointed out, they sent the legal notice because the person had Javascript in their Limited Company, not because they were selling a Javascript course. You can't create a Limited company violanting someone's trademark.

And in fact there are dozens of Javascript courses online

Re: Keep Linux Open and Free–We Can’t Afford Not To

#130

Post by itsokimbatman »

throwaway_62022 wrote: post #67
chasil wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oracle does care about open source, to the extent that they have been the top Linux kernel contributor several times. https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/oracle-is-the-1-contribu... Oracle actually does not undercut the least expensive Red Hat support offerings. Oracle Linux support is $499/year for basic, and $1,399/year for premier. Both tiers allow 24x7 access to file service requests (SRs). https://www.oracle.com…

> Oracle does care about open source, to the extent that they have been the top Linux kernel contributor several times. Linux kernel is not entirety of Linux. Given that there is Oracle cloud and various hardware Oracle has to support, it will be almost unthinkable if Oracle did not contribute to Linux kernel. But - I will be interested in Oracle's support for broader Linux ecosystem. How about contributions to GCC,…

I will say that Oracle does contribute to gcc, gdb, and other parts of the GNU tool chain. I interviewed a few years ago with the team that does it. I don’t know how large the contributions are, but they seem super passionate about what they do and believe strongly in giving back
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