Comment Re:Could have been plausible, but you overplayed i (Score 1) 220
You must be new here.
Comment Re:i know... (Score 1) 360
I think there already was a browser called Phoenix once upon a time, but they had to change the name do to some trademark issue. Can't remember what it's called now. How about something that still captures the idea behind the Phoenix but won't get Mozilla into trademark trouble... like Firebird.
Comment Re:Just me? (Score 1) 105
That took you thirty seconds?
Comment Re:GPL to plugins? (Score 1) 342
It's not the distribution part that makes your code have to be licensed under the GPL, it's the derived work part.
From my understanding, Nvidia wrote Windows drivers and then ported them to Linux, creating a GPL wrapper as an extra layer of protection. The drivers obviously aren't derived works of Linux if they were written for Windows.
I'll admit it's a complicated issue, but I have to disagree with you. I don't think anything can be said for certain until their is some case law to back either side.
Comment Re:GPL to plugins? (Score 1) 342
What you're suggesting is that GPL licensing your code doesn't protect it at all because I can just isolate any GPL code from my non-GPL application and link to it dynamically.
That's a pretty strong statement to make.
The reason people can link to glibc and libreadline without GPLing their apps is because they are writing their application against a generic interface . Just because I happen to be linking to glibc doesn't GPL my app--it could just as easily compile against any other standard C library (quirks aside). The same goes for libreadline. libreadline used to be the only interface for "readline" but now it's become more generic since theirs a BSD clone of it. You can now link an app against libreadline without GPLing it, because it could just as easily have been linked against libedit.
Survey Says C Dominated New '08 Open-Source Projects 378
svonkie writes "C overwhelmingly proved to be the most popular programming language for thousands of new open-source projects in 2008, reports The Register (UK). According to license tracker Black Duck Software, which monitors 180,000 projects on nearly 4,000 sites, almost half — 47 per cent — of new projects last year used C. 17,000 new open-source projects were created in total. Next in popularity after C came Java, with 28 per cent.
In scripting, JavaScript came out on top with 20 per cent, followed by Perl with 18 per cent.
PHP attracted just 11 per cent, and Ruby six per cent. The numbers are a surprise, as open-source PHP has proved popular as a web-site development language, while Ruby's been a hot topic for many."
Comment Re:Damn, did I really not know? (Score 1) 271
In Microsoft speak a RC is a feature complete product, parts are still buggy but the capabilities are in, they still reservice the right to add features but will not remove them.
Ohhh... so it's a beta!
Comment Re:What the fuck? (Score 4, Interesting) 238
I've said it before and I'll say it again.
I have a suggestion. I find these threads quite interesting, but they hardly qualify as news and I don't think we want to see them every day (we're just going to exhaust all decent ideas if we do). Why not do something like this on Fridays instead of the stupid mailbag?
Does anyone agree?
Comment Re:Please Don't Stop (Score 1) 412
I agree. I really enjoy reading through these, although I probably won't read through this entire thread, since I'm a vim user
I have a suggestion/proposal, though: I find these threads really interesting, but they hardly qualify as news and I don't think we want to see them every day. Why not do something like this on Fridays instead of the mailbag? I think many people would prefer that.
Google Adopts, Forks OpenID 1.0 316
An anonymous reader writes "Right on the heels of Microsoft's adoption of the OpenID protocol by announcing their intention to enable OpenID authentication against all Live IDs, Google has announced their intention to join the growing list of OpenID authentication providers. Except it turns out they're using their own version of OpenID that is incompatible with everyone else. It seems that Google will be using their own 'improved' version of OpenID (based upon research and user feedback of the OpenID system) which isn't backwards compatible with OpenID 1.0/2.0, in hopes of improving end-user experience at the cost of protocol compatibility and complexity."
Mark Cuban Calls on ISPs to Block P2P 463
boaz112358 writes "Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, HDNet CEO, and noted gadfly is publishing on his blog that Comcast and other ISPs should block all P2P traffic, because as he says, "As a consumer, I want my internet experience to be as fast as possible. The last thing I want slowing my internet service down are P2P freeloaders." He complains that commercial content distributors instead of paying for their own bandwidth, are leeching off consumers who are paying for the bandwidth. As an alternative distribution method (at least for audio and video), he suggests Google video."
Guitar Hero Maker Sued - Cover Song Too Awesome 190
volpone writes "The band "The Romantics" are suing Activision over their wedding reception favorite, 'What I Like About You,' which appears in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s. The problem is not copyright infringement; Activision had permission to make a cover version of the song. No, the problem is that the cover sounds too much like the original. 'The band's attorneys have indicated that they are seeking an injunction that would force the game to be withdrawn from sale. Although around half of the songs in the newly released Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock feature recordings by the original artists, in previous Guitar Hero games the majority of songs were cover versions.'" In not totally-unrelated news you can download the Mjolnir mix of the Halo theme for play on GHIII, free, today.
CBC News Interprets GPL - Poorly 252
frankShook writes "The Canadian news service CBC has up an article entitled 'Linux distributors scorn Microsoft partnership'. Primarily, it looks to describe the ongoing licensing saga between Microsoft and Linux distributors. It also includes a highly unique interpretation of the GPL: 'Open-source software such as Linux, on the other hand, encourages individuals to add to or modify software without fear of legal repercussions, so long as they abide by the conditions of the general public license, which stipulates that the program must remain open and sharable.'"
Dispelling BSD License Misconceptions 202
AlanS2002 writes "Groklaw is hosting an article by Brendan Scott which looks at the misconceptions surrounding the BSD license. From the article: 'We observe that there exists a broad misconception that the BSD permits the licensing of BSD code and modifications of BSD code under closed source licenses. In this paper we put forward an argument to the effect that the terms of the BSD require BSD code and modifications to BSD code to be licensed under the terms of the BSD license. We look at some possible consequences and observe that this licensing requirement could have serious impacts on the unwary.'"
Why are Free-Desktop Developers Wedded to Linux? 528
An anonymous reader wonders: "We have been hearing promising predictions like 'This year will be the year of Linux on the desktop' for the last decade. However, the Linux of today seems to be as far away as ever from realizing the expectations of mass adoption we once had for it, without significant growth in home usage since the late 90s. Clearly, if Linux is unable to reproduce a third of Firefox's end user uptake over a much longer time-frame, there are deficiencies with the direction the GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE system has taken. Of course, almost all free software and desktop efforts and development remain unquestioningly oriented around Linux.
Other free-desktop operating system projects which take different and innovative approaches like ReactOS, AROS, Mona and Syllable remain comparatively starved of developers and interest. An often cited reason for using a non-Microsoft OS is to avoid a monoculture, but free-desktop efforts have created a total monoculture around developing and promoting Linux, despite a decade of failure in supplanting Microsoft's proprietorial OSes with it. Why are free-desktop developers neglecting to consider an alternative to the penguin?"
