<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 2:11 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com" target="_blank">atllinuxenthinfo@techstarship.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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Here's another thing I just thought of. I don't want the flight control software (or hardware) on the Boeing 747 I might be sitting in at 30,000 feet above the ground to be FOSS (or FOSH). I want that to be rigorously designed by highly trained engineers working in a cohesive manner and thoroughly tested. Furthermore, if I'm an airline and I bought the plane, I want world class support in case there are problems.<br>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>I WANT OpenSource software/hardware running my planes, cars, traffic lights, internet, beer fridge, etc. I WANT a zillion people to have the ability to look at the code designed and written by top engineers as an extra set of competent eyes to see things from a different perspective and find bugs not found earlier. There's a reason that as a physicist I get some pretty decent jobs in software, hardware and general technology: I see it from a different perspective and can turn that perspective into good operating processes/code/design/ideas, etc.<br>
<br></div><div>FOSS does not mean "No Support". It means access to the code. Free does not mean "no monetary value or no cost". It means freedom to use and analyze. RedHat is a billion dollar company. They sell support for code they provides full source for free (That's how CentOS gets built). Want support, buy RHEL. Do your own support, use CentOS (or Scientific Linux - developed on US taxpayer cash from RHEL srpm packages at Fermi Lab, CERN and some major universities.).<br>
<br></div><div>Big Corps pay RedHat a load of cash for top quality support. In return, RedHat delivers that support and in turn makes the new code fixes available to all. It's the same way that ALE'rs help out newbies with a zillion "I didn't bother to google this first so I'll ask ale instead" questions. Support. Try getting that from Oracle or Microsoft. Hell, I even PAID Microsoft for a support issue (how do I lock a kiosk machine from having it's background image changed to offensive images by a current user in a college lab setting? - Answer? Nope. Refunded the money. Not solvable. I installed RedHat 6.2 and solved it myself.) and that was a waste of time.<br>
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I'm not bashing FOSS. I'm questioning the concept that it is the only viable or proper way to do things.<br clear="all"></blockquote><div> </div><div>Um. You ARE bashing FOSS. Again. Stop it.<br><br></div><div>The overall concept of FOSS is the ONLY long-term, viable method of advancing human society through technological achievements. All of education works on a FOSS concept (Think about that for a long time before you come back with a counter response. I've work in academia a long time and have seen it in action for 20 years and historically for thousands.). A shared idea is one that has a better chance of being built and tested. If automakers shared ideas instead of keeping them secrets, a breakthrough by one group is a windfall for all. Does it hurt the others or the original group? Nope. They get kudos for the new stuff and now are expected to continue with more. The others can use their expertise to solve a different issue. In Linux-land, RedHat focused on the large-scale stuff, SuSE focused on X drivers for a long time, Debian churned more and more code into GPL versions, Ubuntu tackled newbie ease-of-use, Fedora pounds on advancing the technology. The stupid distroA vs distroB crap is juvenile chest thumping (all y'all chumps know MyOS kicks your distro in the gnome-ads :-) and serves basically to give weak journalism something to write about.<br>
<br></div><div>After you ponder on that for a month or so, go read this article from RMS in wired today:<br><br><a href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/10/a-necessary-evil-what-it-takes-for-democracy-to-survive-surveillance/">http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/10/a-necessary-evil-what-it-takes-for-democracy-to-survive-surveillance/</a><br>
<br></div><div>I posted that link because I see the concepts of the GPL as critical to the system of organization we're supposed to be using.<br><br></div><div>And it's RMS.<br></div></div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">
-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><i><i><i><i><br></i></i></i></i>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.<br>
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain<br><i><i><i><i><br><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br></i></i></i></i></div>
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