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Linux doomsday

everybody loves eric raymond episode 29 strip

Some script help from Ciarán O’Riordan.

  • LKML: : Linux in a binary world… a doomsday scenario
  • imdb: The Terminator

21 replies on “Linux doomsday”

Couldn’t agree more. While I’m glad that the discussion has come up, binary modules should then have been shot down in flames akin to atomic fire.

Best Yet!

To me, binary-only modules are an abominable affront to the GPL. Linus never should have authorised them. Had he not; I believe ATi & nVIDIA would have inevitably capitulated, to harvest the revenue available from the desktop GNU/Linux community.

Unfortunately, now it seems they never have to.

Binary modules are lame.

Linus had no authority to authorise them.

It is a difficult position – I do need my Nvidia binary 3d drivers.

But now Nvidia will never both open sourcing them.

I won’t buy Nvidia again.

I think there’s a misunderstanding here… Linus *never* gave any kind of blanket authorisation for binary modules, in fact he said he considers most of them wrong. He just can’t be bothered to take legal action himself.

Where’s ER? He’s right there lying on his belly, this is the VR version too! It was worth it. Just do not hit those trees, he’s a kung fu master but a smash in the face from a giant red wood thingy and no semi-automatic is gonna help ya. Did anyone hear Richard Stallman on Alex Jones, honestly Stallman is a name Nazi, if it’s not Gnnuuuuu GPL v3.1.43.13.45.3 then it’s not free software. Sometimes he should just keep the foil hat on and go out in a thunder storm!

Thanks for the link, it’s a good talk. I see his sense of tact is still non-existant. But seriously for a moment, did he hurt his left foot or something? He’s walking like someone in serious hurt.

Anne Jan Brouwer: I love how, in the video, he says key sentences in a louder deeper voice. I guess he hopes it’ll hypnotise the crowd or something. It just makes him sound insanely patronising.

He did the same thing when he was on The Linux Show. Patronizing then, too. Something about “tact”….

[…] Via SF Signal : Tidbits Part LI, we have essay on A political history of science fiction from Eric S. Raymond (yes that ESR! providing furture material to the Everybody loves Eric Raymond web comic), a – surprisingly – decent read : At bottom, the central assumption of SF is that applied science is our best hope of transcending the major tragedies and minor irritants to which we are all heir. […]

Wow. Thanks for bring that LKML posting to wider attention. It had passed me by, and perhaps others (it didn’t make it to Slashdot, perhaps because it has good grammar and spelling… or hadn’t been on Digg for 48 hours beforehand).

You know, because of the binary robots, the future is very probably consolidation. There will be two tiers of Linux – those for which binary drivers are packaged, and those without. When I say packaged I mean RPMs or .deb files that install easily and quickly.

Top tier: Ubuntu (the /acceptable/ face of Debian), Red Hat Enterprise, Novell SUSE.
Bottom tier: Debian, Slackware… all the rest.

[…] En fin, que aunque estoy contento por que puedo usar un trozo de hardware que he pagado (y a buen precio) también estoy triste por como han evitado que lo pudiera usar hasta ahora. Para dar un poco de color al tema os recomiendo hechar un ojo a la última tira de “todo el mundo ama a Eric Raydmon” (o el tipo de las pistolas que diria Marchesi que habla precisamente sobre drivers cerrados. […]

I thought one of the fundamental points of free software was “freedom”. Riducule it if you must, but to me, 3d frame rates matter, and I enjoy the freedom to get them, even if it means using proprietary modules. In addition, more and more graphics are done with GL (XGL is perhaps the most widely known example).

Similarly, the free nvidia module tends to lock up the display on one of my computers if I use Xv. Sure, critcize nVidia for being proprietary, but more important is *working code*.

Requiring 3D card manufacturers to release full specs may be naive, it is not clear that nVidia and ATI own the required IP to the extent that they can publish it.

I prefer the GPL and have used Linux since 1991 or so, but if my freedom to use my computer the way I want is taken away by a radical mob more busy proving a political point than solving technical problems, I’m headed for BSD.

-k

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