For the first time that we know of, Federal Computer Week magazine is reporting on open source software. This weekly, which gets onto the desks of all Federal IT managers, has hardly acknowledged in the past that alternative solutions exist. This week the cover (print edition) features a gaggle of penguins waddling up The Capitol steps as well as a menu of articles (online) about migration, Firefox, the case against open source, Linux application pentitude, and a piece by Tom Adelstein in which he highlights how an FBI info-sharing project for homeland security represents a growing list of open source success stories in Government.
Adelstein: Linux Drives Innovation
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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There’s nothing innovative about linux… It’s the same old Unix from the 70’s. And whats worse: It’s a Unix done badly. A complete mess.
Lol………….
There’s nothing innovative about linux… It’s the same old Unix from the 70’s. And whats worse: It’s a Unix done badly. A complete mess.
Whaaa?? …and all this time I thought Unix was a Linux distro!!!
Whaaa?? …and all this time I thought Unix was a Linux distro!!!
you are wrong, Unix is an unlicensed version of BSD
if you clowns bothered reading the article you would find the focus is on ERN which is basically Apache+MySQL+PHP – runs equally well on BSD. Its just a rehash of an article he wrote for some other publications.
However, trolling requires no intelligence, so carry on.
you are wrong, Unix is an unlicensed version of BSD
Right, and the earth is the center of the universe.
The internet, in my opinion, is one of the greatest equalizers to date. A few years back something like OSS was nearly impossible, but now thanks a wider availability of the internet, we are seeing things like GNU/Linux, higher quality OSS, and decentralization of power.
It’s great to read about OSS, even if it’s dubbed “Linux”, in print mags that are bound to reach a greater audience.
There’s bound to be the rabid MS/Apple fanboys who will chime in with their “OSS sucks, long live XYZ OS!”, but whatever. As consumers we all should be glad that OSS is driving not only itself, but other people to innovation. Alittle competition never hurt anyone, etc, etc …
By the way, most UNIX admins would be insulted to hear you equate GNU/Linux to the same heights as UNIX. As for the BSD remarks, yes it’s a good OS but unfortunately it lacks commercial support. Very few companies bother porting their stuff over to BSD and ones that do are usually pressured by their comsumers, nVidia for instance. For that reason alone, you’ll have to stay on more viable platforms like GNU/Linux which is corporate America’s sweetheart.
PS: You gotta love that cover.
“However, trolling requires no intelligence, so carry on.”
But it’s what passes for conversations in this forum. You can’t have a serious conversation at this website with fanatics from all directions flaming each other, etc. Personally, I just assumed over time that that’s what internet forums are for.
Intelligence is highly overrated. For example, one of the last times Adelstein had an article appear here, everyone said Linux was older than BSD. I disputed that and got creamed. Now, BSD is more mature. But, what about FreeBSD? I don’t know or care. If the Feds get the idea and stop paying for silly software and I get a self directed social security account as a result — cheers!
Windows XP is based on vms, how old is that?
Windows XP is based on vms, how old is that?
It’s not as old as Unix. And endless repetitive articles about VMS and the Windows kernel would be just as boring as the endless repetitive articles about Linux you see everywhere. I’m convinced that sites use articles about Linux for the same reason stand-up comedians use profanity in their act. It’s just a cheap way to push peoples buttons and get some attention.
It has been a while since Linux was considered “alternative”. Its pretty mainstream now and the “big new thing”.
Windows XP is based on vms, how old is that? – It is older than UNIX. Windows XP is based on VMS and it’s a bad design.
UNIX was never meant for Intel. Linux was built with the 5 ring architecture and preceeded all Microsoft and IBM products in using protected mode 32 bit pre-emptive multi-tasking by almost five years. Go back to Minix and it gets even better at using Intel’s architecture.
Some Linux advocates are very selffish, myself included. I want people to use Linux because OEM’s might build Linux drivers and DVD codecs, etc. No harm exists in that.
I like the technology – its exciting to be able to work on something where you can see the code and make contributions – whether by sending in a patch or fixing a bug.
for those same reasons. I want drivers, good supported drivers. I want off the shelf software. I want all the mainstream things that Microsoft’s users have enjoyed for many years. Linux is past the chicken and egg now, show me the apps so I can show you the money.
I have to hope that was a troll.
Linux was built with the 5 ring architecture
So what’s the fifth ring? The one ring to rule them all?
x86 has 4 rings of which Linux uses only 2.
You know not to flame here, I haven’t read the full article but in general I would have to say that I personally don’t see a lot of innovation with Linux. In general Apple, Microsoft, etc.. come out with software products and new features in those products and then Linux copies them and implements an open soure project that closely clones the original.
While im a Mac OS X user mainly I would like to see something go the opposite way for once, meaning Linux creates an innovative program/feature that Apple, Microsoft, etc. copy. I mean comon Linux developers have put together a good OS I’d just like to see them take the initiative instead of trying to keep up.
Come on, Linux is a kernel not an OS. Get that through your head!
OSS developers are more or less forced to copy software that would otherwise not exist on their favourite OS. Take for instance rhythmbox, an iTunes clone. We don’t get iTunes? Screw it! We’ll build our take of that software and make it OSS so that anyone (no matter what OS) can use it. Most of the *nix guys are DIY type guys, take things into our hands as opposed to sitting on our hands and waiting for something to happen.
The reason why you don’t see OSS as an innovative force is that alot of the innovations are ported over to the most popular platforms, thus making it less obvious. Mozilla-Firefox, Bittorrent, GCC, etc … all ported over to the two big OSes.
Another thing MS and Apple got billions in the bank, as where OSS guys can hardly afford to keep the shirts on their back. MS and Apple can afford to piss away money on R&D …
Blah, forget it…
By using Open Source Software you can keep your money.
”
You know not to flame here, I haven’t read the full article but in general I would have to say that I personally don’t see a lot of innovation with Linux. In general Apple, Microsoft, etc.. come out with software products and new features in those products and then Linux copies them and implements an open soure project that closely clones the original.
While im a Mac OS X user mainly I would like to see something go the opposite way for once, meaning Linux creates an innovative program/feature that Apple, Microsoft, etc. copy. I mean comon Linux developers have put together a good OS I’d just like to see them take the initiative instead of trying to keep up.
”
What about command line auto-completion? Bash had that long before the WinXP command line did, yet my uncle thought it was innovative when he saw it in the Windows XP command line. When I mentioned that Bash had that long before the WinXP command line did, he still thought that the Bash developers had somehow copied Microsoft (they must have used a time machine).
What about virtual desktops? I wonder if Microsoft will implement that in Longhorn.
Most of the reason you don’t see innovation in OpenSource is that OpenSource is not a company that spends millions of dollars advertising every bloody feature they invent.
Like another poster said, what about GCC, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice (an example of innovation here is their PDF export feature). I could add numerous things to that list.
Even look at amsn, an msn messenger clone. They have more features than MSN Messenger 6.2 and are implementing in their next few releases all of the new features in 7 beta as well as their own innovations, such as tabbed chat windows.
“What about virtual desktops? I wonder if Microsoft will implement that in Longhorn. ”
Been available as a powertool for XP for quite a while now. Since release?
“Even look at amsn, an msn messenger clone. … as well as their own innovations, such as tabbed chat windows.”
Will that be different from gaim’s tabbed chat windows?
Everyone steals from everyone else.
>>This weekly, which gets onto the desks of all Federal IT managers, has hardly acknowledged in the past that alternative solutions exist.
I very much doubt that. The government has used Unix systems for decades. The shift to MSFT is a recent happening by comparison. For example the Coast Guard (of which I’m a veteran of) used Unix machines for their standard workstations up until the year before I left (’98) and even then the Unix ones were still on desks they just had 2 computers one with the Unix station the other with NT4. (Software hadn’t changed over for LUFs system yet is why we still needed the unix boxes).
Anonymous (IP: —.cg.shawcable.net): What about virtual desktops? I wonder if Microsoft will implement that in Longhorn.
Axord: Been available as a powertool for XP for quite a while now. Since release?
I would like to add that alot of missing features have actually been implemented by 3rd parties over the years and as a result you could actually find some of these things with a little hunting.
For example: There was a little utility (can’t remember what it was called) that added virtual desktops to Windows 3.0 if I remember correctly.
I think Microsoft never implemented them for three reasons, they didn’t feel the need, by allowing some things to pass by they created a market for companies to produce utilties, and they could always add it to a future release of Windows and claim it as an “innovation”. After all, if they added everything at once they might have a hard time coming up with anything new.
Everyone here thinks it is a bad thing for developers to “steal” ideas from other projects.
What do you people care if the Linux developers “steal” ideas from Windows or OS X? All it does is force Microsoft and Apple to make new ideas and innovate more, much like a lot of Open Source projects are introducing new features that will most likely end up in Microsoft and Apple products, forcing Open Source projects to innovate faster as well. Somehow this is a bad thing?
Borrowing ideas allows different systems and applications to be more alike, allowing users to flip between software vendors more easily, thus increasing competition, and also lowering prices.
Or would you all rather have no shared ideas and all different user interfaces to be completely different so it is a huge task to switch between them with? If KDE and Gnome hadn’t borrowed ideas from Windows and Mac OS, and something like WindowMaker or Fluxbox were the only desktops available for Linux, do you think people would be converting from Windows to Linux.
Although software patents may cause what I said in my last paragraph to become true.
Don’t you get that this ‘innovation’ thing is just another propaganda tool used against Linux and FS? Every idea we see in computer science has some historical precedents. Of course there are innovations, but is that the most important thing in computer science? Of course not, the most important thing is that systems work well for the benefit of mankind. And FS does that. Nevertheless, there is a lot of innovation in FS, but it doesn’t matter a damn thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop being so gullible and buying the enemies words… FS is about freedom from capitalism, and the concept of private property in software code, and that is more important than ‘inovation’ ‘tco’ (it’s amazing how propagandists try to make you believe that free isn’t free, jesus christ), or wtf-ever!!!!!!!
Dan