We've proven that the people are by and large too stupid to have complete control over their "PC" in a networked environment. So, why not have a managed thin client instead of a desktop? Anywhere that the unit is captive to an enterprise / office / school, F the "PC" model. It's done. Waste of power to run. Waste of resources to build each unit. Waste of money to manage and troubleshoot the 'workstations'. I laughed the first time I heard a "PC" called a workstation. The fad is coming to an end.

Of course, developers and bastards like me will continue on using our UNIX however we see fit, whereever we see fit. UNIX on a fast laptop...how about that? Hell. UNIX on a phone? (the iPhone)

I've had great results with Brother's printers. Postscript, good driver support, etc. etc. Also, the ones with wireless are pretty handy too. Ethernet for cheap, and decent consumables, both offbrand and onbrand. e.g. HL-5370DW PCL, Postscript clone, duplex, straight paper path (cardstock!), wireless 11g, ethernet & usb. Paper trays available. $249 USD Also, total MFC with Fax, flatbed: MFC-8890DW $499 and down.

Slashdotters in Austin: Join Your ACLU Chapter The Central Texas Chapter of the ACLU works with the police department to correct issues. I'm sure the chapter president there is already calling to express her objections.

The problem with the Adam Smith view of the market is they assume everyone is 1) rational and 2) completely informed. When you add in incomplete information, i.e. the person is rational about what he knows but he can only see 3 or 4 levels of transactions, then you get the 1/f power curve which demonstrates continual fluctuations at all scales, including huge economic bubbles and depressions. a lot like real life,

You must have checked a long time ago; FreeBSD got support for ZFS on root partitions before OpenSolaris. That said, the ZFS implementation in FreeBSD is based quite an old version of ZFS from OpenSolaris. There is a newer version in FreeBSD 8, but other bits of the kernel are less tested (8 is still in beta). If you really care about stability, Solaris is probably a better choice for ZFS than FreeBSD at the moment.

If you believe that, you should be foaming at the mouth just as much over Apple.

If I had a Mac I would be.

I'm not sure what you're arguing against. Apps can include local copies of frameworks just fine on the app store, and the iPhone OS provides frameworks that apps use. It wouldn't work at all without those.

What is specifically not allowed is using external frameworks distributed separately, or internal OS frameworks.

You've put OS X near the top of the list, but the OS X kernel is called XNU, which sounds a bit too much like something from Scientology to be a cool name.

You just made my head explode

Right, because obviously the ultimate evolution of computer languages for all time is C and C++. There's never any need to further innovate that technology whatsoever.

Are you @#$@ kidding? It wasn't that funny.

I take issue with the assertion that nobody ever caught on with it. GNUStep? NeXT has been around for something like 15 years in industry now. EDS and others used it. Ross Perot was so impressed he invested in it and because a director at NeXT. It has a very feature rich set of frameworks associated with it, depending on your OS deployment. The only thing that sucks is Apple dropping OPENSTEP / Obj-C for Windows. But Steve didn't care about the enterprise market anymore at the time, and it might have eroded some mac hardware sales, and you couldn't very well charge a license for it. (I disagree, I think you could and can)

Yes, but trying to be an expert on computing without using, or believe in, the web is a bit like trying to be an automotive expert who doesn't use or believe in roads. Yes you can have a car which never goes on roads, and the automotive insight of someone who doesn't use roads can be applicable, but if you don't use your car the way everyone else does, then you're very likely to be out of touch with how everyone else views cars. Same with RMS and computing.

Simply put, there is a LOT more to computing than the web. It's really not the most important thing going in computing, intellectually. It does have impact, but the issues RMS champions are the same with or without the web, and predate the web. They are much more foundational than your browsing experience of The Smoking Gun, Fark & TMZ.

I remember panning the GUI web browser as a toy too. Hell, I panned this website as a piss poor replacement for FirstClass & the like. I didn't use a web browser hardly at all until I took a software development job at a "new media" firm. Kinda had to get familiar with it =P

Why are we even arguing all of this, RMS is a raving nutter, and he's just getting nuttier. He is, at the very least paranoid, seeing absolutely everything as the beginning of the end and the thin edge of the wedge. The fact that he's the most vocal advocate of open source is a tragedy for the whole movement. The GNU suite of software is very good, but put RMS in the back room and lock the door, let him code and keep him away from people like the rest of the dungeon nerds.

He just expects you to actually think when communicating or listening. I know, it's naive and idealistic of him. But it is very optimistic!

I don't really use it anymore, but I have a TRS-80 Model IV and it works. I haven't used the modem in a long time. That's only about 26 years old though. The PowerBook 165c also works, and that's from 1993, making it 16 years old. Bonus for the SCSI ethernet adapter.

Trade Anonymity for security? The very idea sounds like trading liberty for security. Not everyone lives in a free-ish country.

Anonymity is key for using the internet in the promulgation of freedom. The democratic nature of its communications is not the 'killer app' as classically defined, but it is the paradigm shift that comes along for the ride as national telecoms shifted to ubiquitous IP transport for POTS.

I'll take my spam and the other bullshit as the cost of this breakthrough. I'm not interested in a effective online network to pay my bills, or wank my thang as a fat westerner who has the right to disagree with their government already. Besides, there's plenty of efficient software to deal with this issue.

Now, if a government/conspiracy/interest group wanted to end net neutrality and free speech of the internet, I'd start going after the software that lets us effectively deal with the chaff, like BrightMail, and other AV/Anti-Phish research in general.

That all being said, whatever they TRY to engineer, it will break down in the end. It's like DRM, we can beat it, it would just be an arms race, and a complete waste of resources. Such reinvention that seeks the promise of 100% security will just serve to further criminalize those who need their anonymity to pursue their free speech rights. And require more technical expertise to successfully execute.

David Akin: If you build a new Internet and you want me to get a license to drive on it, sorry. I'm hanging out here in v.1."

Really David? you think that various forces wouldn't shut down v.1, not especially quick in non-free regions? Those people understand what a threat free mass communication is to their stranglehold on power. THAT is their business.

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs. And: The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos. And finally... Another White House official whose transition cellphone was disconnected left a message temporarily referring callers to his wife's phone.

I'm confounded that the Presidential Transition Office staff wouldn't take their resources, hardware, servers, etc with them. Transition staff with disconnected cell phones? Come on. The Transition is about getting a running start on the EOP. What an opportunity to refresh and innovate your network services. Hopefully not a problem of private donations to government ethics or such. I guess its more likely a question of not stepping on existing government staff toes.