Huh... so a lot of people are wrong.

How many? Hard to count how many people, but we can certainly look at applications.

Let's examine my Fedora 17 laptop. In /usr/bin, 139 programs are written in Python, including my music player (quodlibet), repo management, some of abrt (defect reporting), time tracking, and desktop wiki.

Another 194 are written in Perl, including parts of fvwm, foomatic and callgrind.

388 more are POSIX shell script and 45 bash scripts.

There are 381 symbolic links, 31 hard links (which I now disclude), and 2346 binary executables.

There are 3522 total programs in /usr/bin.

67% binaries, 22% scripts, and 11% links.

[Java applications, and LibreOffice are not counted, but I'd imagine you would probably classify Java apps as scripts too]. This is a freshly upgraded netbook, and (since this is /usr/bin) we have only examined "system" or "distribution" applications.

I guess that 22% must be wrong. If we can extrapolate from applications to developers (hey, I know that is just wrong, but it's better than NO data at all), 1 in 5 developers is shipping scripts.

And that (proudly) includes me.

As to the "900MB"? The python interpreter has a 10kb front-end, and 1.7mb library. Yes, there is some additional overhead.

Let's examine QuodLibet (music player application): 67mb resident, compared to 11mb for Terminal (collecting this data), and 267mb for firefox (as I'm typing this comment).

QuodLibet offers albums, playlists, sophisticated queries, and runs just fine on a NETBOOK.

In Python.

"it (open source) just seemed to want to steal someone else's work in this particular area."

What a baddass comment. Completely wrong, of course, but badass.

SAMBA predates Windows SMB server.

It would be just as accurate to say Microsoft "just seemed to want to steal someone else's work in this particular area."

The biggest problem with design patterns is that they codify repeated constructs.

And, since we are teaching developers that repeating these constructs by rote is "the right thing to do", there is less call to actually push the problem to where it belongs...

The language implementation itself.

If you keep repeating "Factory", "Observer" (whatever), then why wouldn't you want something that can actually represent the concept?

Reducing the concepts into a (hopefully) smaller set should make this more directly implementable. Or, at least provide the building blocks to permit direct Pattern implementation is a library sense. (although, I have not read the book, nor the thesis, just going by the summary here).

But, I agree with you. Cutting edge development must take place in uncharted areas, and the use of patterns is "known space". It should be really known space, though, in that the Patterns must be subsumed (like subroutines and I/O libraries). Stressing about Patterns all the time will be... (or should be) wasteful.

Peter Norvig wrote an interesting article about this:

http://www.norvig.com/design-patterns/

(http://norvig.com/bio.html)

In the article, he shows how 16 of 24 GoF patterns simply disappear, or become considerably less relevant by proper language support.

However, if the programming community at large insists on weaker languages, we may need to take smaller steps, and the book being reviewed may be a useful step in that direction.

But... isn't that already done?

Isn't tripwire available for Windows? http://www.tripwire.org/ (sorry, I only have experience with the Linux version, part of the standard Fedora/Redhat repositories).

I've been using it for years on my systems. Just seems to be a sensible part of a protection plan. (I got a laptop rooted once -- tripwire detected it, and I've never been without it since).

I'll take a stab at "community".

"Open source" software actually predates "closed source". Proprietary? Sure, there have been many proprietary open source programs.

For example, back in '76, I was with the company that produced "MicroChess" (I wrote the I/O routines for the TRS-80 and the Commodore PET).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchess

MicroChess was a proprietary program, and was the first program to sell over 10,000 copies. It came with full source code.

The "community" here is composed of people who care about the software that they run, who are interested in it, and can make use of the ideas embodied in the source.

The "community" is large enough to allow me to run my netbook with GPL software ONLY. Now, I do have some "closed-source" software on my netbook as well (Skype, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader), but I really don't depend on any of these.

How large is this "community"? I use Fedora, and here are some statistics.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics

I seem to be in a "community" of at least 2 million, and maybe much higher (it really is hard to tell).

What is interesting is that you should be allowed to install and use the program -- WHETHER OR NOT you accept the GPL.

If you say "No", you have can use the program, but not distribute it. If you say "Yes", you can distribute the program as well.

And you, Sir, are the moron.

The United States, as well as China, France, Russia, United Kingdom has veto power in the UN.

In other words, the US would have to agree to any changes to an Internet under UN control.

I believe you are right. But... instead of removing links to Microsoft copyright material based on a DMCA request, why not replace the search request with a Bing derived search? Even label it as such.

Should be automatable. (If DMCA copyright holder is Microsoft, search for the specific item on Bing, from the DMCA request; if found, annotate the result w/ Bing! instead of DMCA removal).

unixisc

Stooping to ad-hominem attacks. Shame, shame.

Yes, I used the word "fascism". Even used it correctly, Lordy, imagine that! In my (not so humble) opinion, the government of the USA is becoming fascist.

Now, I am not a citizen, or resident of the USA, but let's examine this idea:

- radical authoritarian political ideology - Check (TSA would be an example)
- single ultra-nationalist identity - Check (national anthem at baseball games?)
- racist, coupled with eugenics - Check (number of black people incarcerated http://www.peace.ca/truthaboutblackcrime.htm)
- totalitarian, single-party state (damn close, money seems to rule) - Check
- tip of the hat to "democracy" - Check
- government and corporatist collusion - Check

Ok, political views aside, I did stand down and call it what it is.

But... some choice quotes from the post I was responding to:

"freeloader society"

"maybe the service provider doesn't want the customer to unlock the STB and set it up so that it can start receiving free (as in gratis) channels from Australia, Russia, South Africa and Mexico, or domestic unsubscribed channels not in the paid plan"

"business-hostile aspect of the FSF"

Cogitate on that for a while.

There ain't no such thing.

Everything on the Internet is Copyrighted (or public domain)...

There may be illegal sharing. Or making available. Just not downloading.

Of course the "Industry" wants to plant a meme -- "illegal downloading".

Since there is no such thing (as illegal downloading(*)), usenet groups have been cut first (because usenet clients do NOT upload as they download). Peer-to-peer systems upload from clients, which is why they got hit.

MegaUpload? A shot across the bow -- and the service ended up being legal.

Advice: Turn off sharing in your bittorrent client, unless you are sure that you can distribute the material.

Or fetch the material from usenet, ftp, or other "one-way" means. Do not post the material on Web Sites, ftp servers or usenet -- do not make it available for download.

Unless you live somewhere more enlightened, of course (Personal Copy Exemption in Canada, for example).

(*) Except for specific material, child porn, hate literature, other material, depending on venue.

Shaitand

First, what does Exchange have to do with audio?

Secondly, what are you looking for? A replacement for the Exchange Server? Sorry, probably not happening. If you HAVE a need for Exchange, you buy Exchange, right?

But, you mentioned "business desktop". Why not go with Evolution, then? Talks with Exchange, does mail, calendar, notes and contacts. What more would you need? The only thing "missing" is the ability to change your Windows Domain Password. So, just use an RDP client (Remmina would be one choice) to log in to a Windows Server in that Domain. For instance, try to log in to the Exchange Server. Of course you (probably) because you would have to be an administrator, but the ATTEMPT will allow you to update your password.

Mail - check
Notes - check
Calendar - check
Contacts - check
Password Change - check
RDP - check

Now, Evolution is (in my opinion), far better than the Windows Exchange client. Talks to more server types, allows a choice of spam control, better signatures, threads both Microsoft and Unix emails, and more.

So try it -- if it works for you, problem solved, right?

(I was forced to use Windows Exchange client a few years ago. I was shocked that emails weren't threaded! But, I think this has been sorted recently -- just not compatibly).

Product placement for the terminally stupid?

"...WOA builds on the foundation of Windows, has a very high degree of commonality and very significant shared code with Windows 8, and will be developed for, sold, and supported as part of the largest computing ecosystem in the world."
Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft

And THAT'S why -- Microsoft wants to have a single ecosystem.

Further

"Metro style apps in the Windows Store can support both WOA and Windows 8 on x86/64." Steven Sinofsky

(note that WOA is "Windows On ARM")

Is not long enough. We use our laptops for 3 (or more) years. Every 3 (2 if I beg) I can have a new one.

I expect that I can have one of these in 2 years (having just gone through a replacement). Been pushing for an Apple laptop, anyway...

Your company (which includes you) won't touch GPL. The tradeoff is, as you mentioned, a much increased development effort.

Not the fault of the GPL -- that is simply a license specifying tit for tat (in a nutshell).

And it's RIGHT -- I see many interesting parts in closed source programs, and I can't leverage them, or touch them. Completely out of reach. So, you can't take GPL baubles.

Tit for tat. It WORKS, bitches!