Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

article.gmane.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 128 posts

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#111

Post by jlgreco »

dietrichepp wrote: post #110
jlgreco wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "GNU might get you something roughly comparable to BSD/Solaris/etc, but without the Linux kernel there is really no technical reason to prefer GNU to BSD/Solaris/etc." This might make sense... except that it is popular to use GNU userlands on non-Linux systems, and that has always been the case. Hell, what do you think people were doing before Linux existed? So really it makes zero sense whatsoever. Gnome without a…

"Gnome is the new GNU" is an analogy, not a mathematical formula.

Yeah, and it makes no sense.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#112

Post by belorn »

clinth wrote: post #104
belorn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a place where this complaint is posted? I know about the one time in regard to Werner Koch, and in which a legal problem arrived, and was subsequently fixed, but where FSF did not inform Koch about the fixing. To my understanding, that was a mistake in communication from FSF and was later resolved.

The clearest example is from the LWN article you referenced. > "Once a developer assigns copyright, they are at the mercy of the assignee to enforce the copyright. In this particular case, one can speculate that the failure to pursue the violation was likely a shortage of human resources. As Richard noted, "We have staff for GPL enforcement, […] but there are so many violations that they can't take action on all."" A…

That is a general complain which has a general answer. If you let someone do your legal work, it might not be done with the same priority as if you did it yourself.

But, general handwaving aside, has there been a case with GNU sed or gnutls in which the legal work was done in a less than satisfactional way?

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#113

Post by dalke »

bonzini wrote: post #90
dalke wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we are, as the saying goes, in violent agreement. I don't understand where the either-or comes in.

Choosing a subset of users to satisfy will not protect the freedom of users as a whole. Choosing to protect the freedom of users as a whole will dissatisfy developers who would like to have a different set of freedoms.

Ahh, right. Like "equality before the law" is great for everyone, but for people with lots of money it might be a bit annoying.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#114

Post by tytso »

chimeracoder wrote: post #64
tytso wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the Linux Kernel's position is that we want the contributions from companies like Tivo, because even though a particular device might be locked down. Contributions from companies like Tivo, and Sony, and Samsung, which may have some of their products with locked down devices, are nevertheless valid contributions which will help make the Linux kernel better --- and those contributions can also be used in complet…

> I'm fairly confident the threat of not being able to buy a general purpose computer is not a high probability outcome. I already have to go very far out of my way and pay a huge premium for getting an unlocked Android phone. As phones/tables supplant many "general-purpose" computer use cases, this threat is only increasing, if current trends continue.

As eropple has already pointed out, the Nexus 4 is quite reasonably priced. More importantly, it's not that you're paying a premium, it's that you're paying the true cost. Most of the locked phones are locked because they are enforcing the fact that you are paying an extra $10 to $20 a month to defray the cost of the phone. If you don't replace your phone after two years, you'll end up paying an extra $120 to $240 extra for your phone. And if you do get a new subsidized phone, you'll be locked in for another two years.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#115

Post by kroger »

ohnoohno wrote: post #109
bonzini wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as an example of extending sed, I introduced "sed -i". Yes, it doesn't require much maintenance, but sometimes you can be surprised. I started maintaining GNU grep 3 years ago because it was in a really sorry state. Some parts were almost rewritten to make it faster and more correct.

I never use sed -i because I can't rely on that being a standard feature as I move from system to system. With a utility as basic as sed that is found on almost every UNIX (and hence often used in a system's startup or configuration scripts, etc.), I want my own sed scripts to work consistently across all systems I might use. If I really want to create temp files I can use ed or use sed with shell redirection. Were i…

Both GNU sed and BSD sed have -i, what other kinds of sed are you using?

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#116

Post by chimeracoder »

tytso wrote: post #114
chimeracoder wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm fairly confident the threat of not being able to buy a general purpose computer is not a high probability outcome. I already have to go very far out of my way and pay a huge premium for getting an unlocked Android phone. As phones/tables supplant many "general-purpose" computer use cases, this threat is only increasing, if current trends continue.

As eropple has already pointed out, the Nexus 4 is quite reasonably priced. More importantly, it's not that you're paying a premium, it's that you're paying the true cost. Most of the locked phones are locked because they are enforcing the fact that you are paying an extra $10 to $20 a month to defray the cost of the phone. If you don't replace your phone after two years, you'll end up paying an extra $120 to $240 ex…

You're confusing having a carrier-unlocked phone with having a phone that has an unlocked bootloader. The two are completely orthogonal concepts; you can unlock the bootloader of a phone that you received with a subsidy by signing 2-year contract with a carrier.

The point is that, once I've bought the hardware, nobody should be able to tell me my that I can't flash my own custom ROM on the phone.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#117

Post by tytso »

chimeracoder wrote: post #116
tytso wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As eropple has already pointed out, the Nexus 4 is quite reasonably priced. More importantly, it's not that you're paying a premium, it's that you're paying the true cost. Most of the locked phones are locked because they are enforcing the fact that you are paying an extra $10 to $20 a month to defray the cost of the phone. If you don't replace your phone after two years, you'll end up paying an extra $120 to $240 ex…

You're confusing having a carrier-unlocked phone with having a phone that has an unlocked bootloader. The two are completely orthogonal concepts; you can unlock the bootloader of a phone that you received with a subsidy by signing 2-year contract with a carrier. The point is that, once I've bought the hardware, nobody should be able to tell me my that I can't flash my own custom ROM on the phone.

So don't buy locked down devices. There are unlocked device for sale, and the Nexus devices are at least price competitive, if not downright cheaper in the case of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. (Yeah, there are some availability issues, but I bet after Christmas things will get better on that front.)

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#118

Post by chimeracoder »

tytso wrote: post #117
chimeracoder wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing having a carrier-unlocked phone with having a phone that has an unlocked bootloader. The two are completely orthogonal concepts; you can unlock the bootloader of a phone that you received with a subsidy by signing 2-year contract with a carrier. The point is that, once I've bought the hardware, nobody should be able to tell me my that I can't flash my own custom ROM on the phone.

So don't buy locked down devices. There are unlocked device for sale, and the Nexus devices are at least price competitive, if not downright cheaper in the case of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. (Yeah, there are some availability issues, but I bet after Christmas things will get better on that front.)

> (Yeah, there are some availability issues, but I bet after Christmas things will get better on that front.)

The availability issues for the Nexus 4 have absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas rush.

> So don't buy locked down devices. There are unlocked device for sale,

You're missing the two points, which are:

1. Unlocking the device should be an option for all phones - it's a basic right of ownership.

2. It's getting harder and harder to find truly open devices (the Galaxy Nexus had issues on this front). If things keep heading in this direction, soon there won't be any unlocked devices for sale.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#119

Post by wzm »

kroger wrote: post #115
ohnoohno wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never use sed -i because I can't rely on that being a standard feature as I move from system to system. With a utility as basic as sed that is found on almost every UNIX (and hence often used in a system's startup or configuration scripts, etc.), I want my own sed scripts to work consistently across all systems I might use. If I really want to create temp files I can use ed or use sed with shell redirection. Were i…

Both GNU sed and BSD sed have -i, what other kinds of sed are you using?

/usr/bin/sed on Solaris 10 and earlier does not support -i. I don't know if OpenIndiana / Solaris 11's sed support -i, but OmniOS uses gnu sed by default, so OI might also.

As I recall, AIX's default sed also does not support -i, but I no longer have access to AIX systems to test against.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#120

Post by kroger »

wzm wrote: post #119
kroger wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both GNU sed and BSD sed have -i, what other kinds of sed are you using?

/usr/bin/sed on Solaris 10 and earlier does not support -i. I don't know if OpenIndiana / Solaris 11's sed support -i, but OmniOS uses gnu sed by default, so OI might also. As I recall, AIX's default sed also does not support -i, but I no longer have access to AIX systems to test against.

Honestly, sed -i is so useful that I'd file a feature request if a sed didn't support it.
Post reply on HN