111–118 of 118 posts
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Bad UI keeps everyone but the most desperate (hello) at bay. 4chan used to do the same to increase the signal/noise ratio.
> 4chan You're right, maybe this place does need word filters. /sarcasm... well, kinda
You're right, maybe this place does need word filters.
/sarcasm... well, kinda
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Richard Fontana analyzed Debian packages... guess what? Mostly GPL. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
I don't think Richard Fontana did the analysis, in his 2012 presentation entitled "The decline of the GPL and what to do about it" [1], he does refer to an analysis of Debian packages but that was done by John Sullivan (which was prompted by and counter to two analyses showing GPL's decline which were done by Matthew Aslett) [1] "The decline of the GPL and what to do about it" https://events.linuxfoundation.org/image…
I was thinking of his original talk:
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i'm chuckling a bit. but then the whole GNU ecosystem is about catering to a tiny minority with special priorities... inside of an even tinier minority of users of open source OSes. I'm sure I am just an outsider who doesn't really understand the needs or the motivations... Linux does well in the server world, and Apple get a lot of attention, but even then, between them, they account for something like 4% of OS inst…
Wow. Thanks for bringing back visions of the 1990s. These arguments were tiresome then; they are boring now. You are conflating GNU, GPL and LGPL. The GNU system may never be as successful as you think. But portions like The GNU Compiler Collection (gcc, go, etc.) and GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) and thinks like GNU Emacs are the standard which others are measured against. Second the "absolutely awful" licenses; being u…
gcc has done okay, and its a fantastic project in many ways... some of the optimisations its capable of are really quite smart. that being said though it has usually been held up as example of how hairy compilers can be. there was a period where gcc saw some real use from apple and sony, but other than that its always been considered the outsider in practice... at least during my career. maybe in the dark and distant past when it was even harder to use GNU/Linux and Unices then it compared favorable against borland and the ms vc 5 compiler... but i doubt that is true.
I'm never going to be onside with licenses like GPL when there are MITs and BSDs which do not impose draconian restrictions to help further a philosophy instead of being actually free. The single most common reason I hear not to use a library, borne from practicality, is that it is GPL or LGPL licensed.
The fact that you cite something that, to a close approximation, nobody has heard of as an example of how this stuff has made the world better is a brilliant example of what I am talking about.
Open source is great in lots of ways, but I'm convinced it would be better if its proponents and contributors were a little more in touch with reality.
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Wow. Thanks for bringing back visions of the 1990s. These arguments were tiresome then; they are boring now. You are conflating GNU, GPL and LGPL. The GNU system may never be as successful as you think. But portions like The GNU Compiler Collection (gcc, go, etc.) and GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) and thinks like GNU Emacs are the standard which others are measured against. Second the "absolutely awful" licenses; being u…
The GPL in practice hasn't always resulted in more freedom compared to other licenses. For example, GCC is purposefully designed to be non-modular, to prevent people from developing proprietary front ends. You may agree or disagree with the trade-off, but observe the LLVM project: you have the freedom to manipulate IR outside the compiler. With GCC, you have permission to manipulate IR outside the compiler, but they'…
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i'm chuckling a bit. but then the whole GNU ecosystem is about catering to a tiny minority with special priorities... inside of an even tinier minority of users of open source OSes. I'm sure I am just an outsider who doesn't really understand the needs or the motivations... Linux does well in the server world, and Apple get a lot of attention, but even then, between them, they account for something like 4% of OS inst…
Do you realize that mobile devices like smartphones and tablets most often have a linux-based or an apple-delivered OS? Following Gartner [1], 60% of all devices shipped in 2014 have an OS based on Linux or delivered by Apple. Do you think that a law that prohibits making other people slaves is non-free in nature? Because the GPL prohibits something similiar. [1] https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2954317
i don't just pull my opinion out of my arse, at least not entirely... :)
your source of figures is very dodgy. you need to account for the devices that aren't brand new, and especially third world and the millions and millions of cheap androids and desktop pcs. looking at america or limiting to new purchases is very special and has nothing to do with the wider market (its not uncommon for people to have a "who buys these things new? what a bunch of idiots" mentality in poorer parts of the world). Apple do much better in the US than anywhere else, and new purchases are not the majority of devices in use in the wild.
try a google search like this:
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1...
and pick from many many sources of more useful figures
as you can see from very many sources, aside from OS X - which is not really a linux, gnu/linux may as well not exist.
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Your invocation of slavery to generate sympathy for your political goals is disgusting.
No, it's quite similar. The GPL doesn't inhibit freedom, it inhibits the power to erode freedom.
Freedom is something we are born with, and I am free to do what I want with any software. The GPL asserts rights based on societal understanding to the contrary. Most nice licenses just ask for credit if its appropriate.
This idea that having priority in solving a problem entitles you to something is harmful for the whole of society for the whole of the future.
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i'm chuckling a bit. but then the whole GNU ecosystem is about catering to a tiny minority with special priorities... inside of an even tinier minority of users of open source OSes. I'm sure I am just an outsider who doesn't really understand the needs or the motivations... Linux does well in the server world, and Apple get a lot of attention, but even then, between them, they account for something like 4% of OS inst…
Lets see, how much do you see Windows on: - in-car infotainment systems - in-flight infotainment systems - running digital billboards - mobile phones (hello android, meego, maemo, webos, etc) - smart televisions - smart dvd/blue ray players - etc You see Linux out in force on all of the above mentioned hardware platforms. The global Linux installbase absolutely dwarfs Windows in comparison by the simple nature that L…
America and new purchases are the tip of the iceberg of the market... maybe those kinds of statistics will be accurate in 15 years time when everything trickles down. Nobody has a mobile phone with a fancy OS to a reasonable approximation, and if they do they are all androids (which you can call it linux all you want, but Google did a whole pile of work to make it viable and has locked up and made it difficult to work with the usual tools people associate with that environment)
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Wow. Thanks for bringing back visions of the 1990s. These arguments were tiresome then; they are boring now. You are conflating GNU, GPL and LGPL. The GNU system may never be as successful as you think. But portions like The GNU Compiler Collection (gcc, go, etc.) and GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) and thinks like GNU Emacs are the standard which others are measured against. Second the "absolutely awful" licenses; being u…
i'll always concede that these technologies are extremely relevant in the web backend space, but for the most part their are bizarre curios that some technical people know about and even fewer actually use. gcc has done okay, and its a fantastic project in many ways... some of the optimisations its capable of are really quite smart. that being said though it has usually been held up as example of how hairy compilers…
Equally convince that you are about your reality, so am I that opponents to GPL are exclusive those who wish to add restrictions on software. Those who only wish to share software and doesn't add restrictive licenses to their work can treat GPL, MIT and BSD as equivalent. It would be nice if the vocal minority would in this regard be "little more in touch with reality" and be upfront about their intension.