Ironically, J K Rowling was very strict on keeping dead people dead in Harry Potter. Being a series aimed for children, it's much more serious than adult literature, which liberally resurrect dead ones with cheap reasons.
(OK, there is an exception, but not going into spoilers, he was not really dead in the first place).
Yes this is a more balanced approach.
Although it can still be manipulated, but at least you'll have to wait to the download to finish, and game to launch.
I believe they have no beef against CentOS, actually I've seen at least one Red Hat employee encouraging the use of CentOS, since Red Had is the "de facto upgrade path" (not the exact words, but something along this way). So you freely enlarge the customer base, which will go to Red Hat when they need higher level commercial support. And for the free ones, even Microsoft has recognized they cannot sell to students, and are giving away the software anyways.
However Oracle is another deal. They just slap Oracle logo on Red Hat, do not acknowledge the source, and sell is as "unbreakable Linux". This would make a regular person ashamed of himself. They benefit a lot from open source but not giving back much in return. Do not start me with what they're doing to Solaris, Java, and OpenOffice...
So I'm with Red Hat on this one, at least until they do something directly bad to CentOS.
This would actually be BAD for open-source. Many of the projects which are protected by GPL2 and similar licenses, with no additional cost to usually "not so rich" programmers, would need a payment in order to be protected.
That would either stop students from posting their source code, or create small caesars which has the money (e.g.: your school, or FSF) to copyright them, and require assignment of ownership.
Well, they can be, and they actually are (in real life). We know that there is at least one military shuttle orbiting earth for several months, nobody in the public knows what's its mission is.
The initial SG1 spaceships where X101, which are retrofitted F-series fighters with alien tech. It's very similar (I'm not saying it actually is an alien hybrid space ship, but the concept is plausible).
One thing I can add is their prices, especially during holiday promotions.
They really go low with so many titles, it's bad for the consumers. I think I have over 50+ games I purchased, but never had a chance to download - let alone play.
It's especially better for out of print titles, where publishers won't make physically available any longer. Instead of paying a stranger astronomical numbers for a used game, I can have it on Steam for an acceptable price. Unless of course I can get in on GOG - which has an additional bonus of being DRM-free.
Anyways Steam is one of the better DRMs, one being done "right", where benefits outweight inconveniences.
(Going against my rule, and replying even though it will risk my karma a lot)...
Unfortunately what you said is only partially true.
For example:
OS/2: Originally Microsoft developed Windows NT as OS/2 - a microkernel which was OS/2 on the front backward compatible with DOS and Windows, and switched to Windows, only after IBM started to show less and less interest in coding, and more interest in their process.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT)
Mosaic: Mosaic was open source originated at NCSA labs, and IE was developed by original Mosaic staff.
Java: Microsoft did not develop
A story is rarely single sided, but it's very hip to hit on MS on Slashdot...
I did not want to go into details. The missing parts (from open source release) are the TCP/IP stack and crypto routines:
http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/11/16/microsoft-to-open-source-the-net-micro-framework.aspx
TCP/IP stack code was licensed from another company, thus MS does not have the right to open it. Crypto has all sorts of export regulations, thus they did not want to go there (you can always find replacement from somewhere else).
On the patent side, the community promise is pretty clear:
http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/07/06/the-ecma-c-and-cli-standards.aspx
MS cannot sue you for implementing core C#/.Net. The only risk (almost part) is either if you sue them (when you lose the license), or another totally irrelevant party claims patents on the code (e.g.: Alcatel mp3 issue). But this risk is on any language. You can never know Borland (or whatever is called right now) will not sue you for using gcc c++ compiler, since they might have a patent on a specific optimization.
A few days ago, I was checking the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Micro_Framework
"available along with the source code as a free download under the Apache 2.0 license at the Microsoft Download Center.."
And Microsoft is actually encouraging people to port it (thus
Oh the irony!
It reminds me the last years digital TV conversion hassle. People will continue to use the software as long as you support it. The only way to move from the (almost) 10 years old OS (which is an antique in today's standards) is Microsoft killing its support.
That would open way for Windows 7 for capable PCs, or Linux and other alternative OSes for older ones.
Easy on the language...
But LVM is *the* solution on Linux. It's not very difficult to set up, and is very stable. As an additional bonus it supports all file system types (as long as they can exist on LVM volumes).
I'll try to answer some of the questions in the follow ups. Sorry for the self reply.
First, governing party cannot change the law in a day. It's more complicated. Not going into political details (everything is politicized in Turkey), there is also a theoretical law issue.
We need such a law. However much more abused, you can see it as the DMCA of Turkey. Turkey (like many European - Old World - countries), adapts a variation of Roman Law, which is in contract to US's Common Law. In US courts do actually make up the law, and decide on their on. In Turkey, there must be a written code for prosecution.
For example in US, if I see my copyrighted work on YouTube, I send a takedown notice, and they comply. (There is a process that everyone knows). In Turkey, I have to go to a PA (prosecuting attorney/state prosecutor), then if he/she finds my complaint worthy, will open a court case. Court will have to decide based on the written law, and send a takedown notice. There is a 30 days period for compliance. This is used to handle cases for copyright/trademark infringement, child pornography, defamation, etc.
Normally this process is more restricted than DMCA, however it all falls apart due to people involved writing and applying the laws (also international websites not caring about Turkish court orders).
Due to my best knowledge, the law in question is adapted from TV broadcast regulations. (This is why I want it completely abolished), and many prosecutors/judges are illiterate on the subject. Furthermore there are some who has an agenda of taking down everything they don't like. So an older angry citizen can go to a court saying YouTube has a video defaming Turkey. Normally this is no big deal (one video in millions). But since the law is broad, the complaint causes the takedown.
The final situation is embarrassing, hope they somehow manage to take down the law itself (and maybe replace it with a much restricted one, as I said unfortunately such a written code is necessary).
Unfortunately this kind of thing happens all the time, and the government cannot do anything about it. Even the president has criticized the ban last week, but it's all up to the courts.
According to Turkish law, *any* PA can ask for a preliminary injunction to ban *any* web site. The web site has to comply within a month, otherwise TK (which is the telecomunnication authority) will have to block the web site in question. Nobody (including prime minister, or the president) cannot stop the ban (unless the website complies).
So if a person from a small town complains about a web site (for example Youtube, or Blogger), and the PA for that town finds the case worthy, he/she request a court order for the ban. This has actually happened (Blogger was banned since some bloggers published world cup matches, and the local TV stations which bought WC rights have complained).
The Google ban comes from Youtube ban. Previously they only removed youtube.com from DNS servers, but people have installed alternate DNS servers, and all was fine. Now they decided to block based on server IP, which is probably shared with other Google services as well.
Anyways they are trying to amend the law, so that this kinds of bans will be restricted (not just any random PA in any random town), but the best would be abolishing the law altogether.
The quality of the code is a function of its cost, too.
For example, the code written for NASA hardware (i.e.: space shuttles), have more documentation than the size of the hardware itself (so, we're looking at a large pile of documents next to the shuttle). It's tested for years, it only works on tested CPUs (i.e.: 20 years old proven 8086s), and the actual "waterfall" method (which is generally a disaster for any other project) is properly applied.
That total brings the cost of each source code line to average $1000. (Same for medical appliances, etc).
The cost of a commercial off the shelf software is much (much much) less than $100.
But, even under such strict control, we had to debug the Mars rovers due to unforeseen bugs during their initial flight.
Anybody here on Slashdot can do the math, and fill in the gaps to calculate the future price of games (for a reference they are $60/unit now).
Definitely agree on Windows Media Center.
With my multiple HDTV tuners, excellent remote, Netflix, and Hulu plugins, and also Internet TV, it's basically irreplaceable. I'm not even mentioning you can stream to multiple Xbox'es on your house over the network... Oops, I mentioned that
Today is a good day for information-gathering. Read someone else's mail file.
