Here is the title of the relevant section of the GPL license structure:

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE    TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

Immediately, one can notice that it refers strictly to copying, distribution and modification, and does not refer to new software at all. However, there is a big, big bone of as yet unresolved tension in the open source community as to what constitutes a "derivative work."

For example, I write software that calls upon a system service (say file i/o, or window drawing routine). There are those in the open source community that say that the minute I do that on a linux box, I am under GPL, because I have written derivative code that relies on GPL for functionality. In other words, even if I charged for it, the subsequent user would have the right to give it away, and I would have to release my source code as well.

This aspect of GPL is very much in dispute, and has not been resolved, insofar as I'm aware. Anybody else have any further legal docs on this? I know there are restricted drivers out there, and some charge for them. However, in those cases, it is quite possible that the driver is written as a "black box", and doesn't care or know about the operating system that requests its services.

Here's the rub...Linux only has a 0.61% - 5% share of the destop market depending on who's data you believe...I tend to think it's in the 3% area...Not much of a market once you narrow that down to guitar players that use Line 6...

Besides, if Edit and Monkey were TRUE JAVA applications then you could simply copy them onto your Linux workstation and they would run...That doesn't even work between Windows and OSX (Berkley Unix)...

The source code you are talking about is any source your app uses that is under GPL...That is, if you change it and re-compile the kernel to optimize your application...You can still sell the application, but you must provide any changed GPL source...Hence, the market is smaller for that kind of advanced workflow...It really doesn't matter, anythign can be de-compiled...

"pbear, how many times in Windows do you go to open a program, and it fails to load?"  Zero

"How many times does a program lock up?"  not often--usually only when i've reached my RAM limit.  it happens more than on my Mac but, again, i'm running multiple appications all day long.

"If you've been running a system for a while, over a year, how long does it take to boot?"  I've had this computer for around 2 years, i have defragmented only a couple of times (i don't consider defragmenting to be "out of the question"--you realize that this can be scheduled to occur while you sleep right?--i just don't feel that it's needed.)  Boot times have not increased noticeably but i have the same hardware and software (give or take some updates) that i've always had--corporate is very strict about what can be installed.  Again, i think it goes back to the complexity vs. stability thing--the more crap you load your computer up with the less stable it will become--i've learned and re-learned this lesson on every Windows machine i've had.  on my work computer i probably have less than 30 applications installed and i'm not constantly installing and uninstalling things so, i guess, my registry stays pretty safe.  I agree that, under normal home use, the older a Windows install gets the screwier it gets and I don't think that an annual fresh installation is a bad thing to consider--it certainly gets you thinking about backup strategies which too many people ignore.

"Linux being free is not the only advantage.  Its also secure.  You are not running in the equvilent of root all the time.  How much resource sucking anti malware do you have to run, just to be able to keep viruses off your pc?"  I am behind a hardware firewall, we run Symantec Antivirus and we have a Spam Blocking service--that's it.  Personally i don't buy that Viruses do as much harm as people--especially tech support--would like us to believe.  When I had a PC at home i never ran Antivirus and only used Windows Firewall.  so how do you know that one of the contributors to Linux hasn't set up something that will give him direct access to your computer?  is there someone who inspects the code for stuff like this?

so, let's say your worst Windows 7 paranoid fantasy comes true and a virus wipes out your entire drive.  was that so bad?  didn't you have your important docs backed up--a bad drive is probably more likely to wipe out data than a virus so you should have had that data backed up anyway.  certainly no reason to own a computer and not have it connected to the internet.  as far as a source of personal information--my wife's former employer found a temp had taken home employment records and had them scattered all over her apartment--people have access, you should have protection.

"Crashes after installing freeware are probably due to the freeware being infected with a virus."  i'm more inclined to believe that free software is poorly written and/or insufficiently tested.  you are free to think it's due to a virus--the programmers will appreciate that.  i'm not a hacker but, if i were going to spend time creating a virus, i wouldn't take the Captain Choas approach of doing some minor, niggling glitch that attaches itself to a freeware download.  i'd create a virus that made fart noises every time you clicked your mouse--more of a Cartman approach.

Nah. Mad Dog 20/20

You're so sexy when you geekspeak.

fblamauer wrote:

 

OS X is actually  BSD unix in case you didn't know.

With some neXt stuff thrown in there, as well as some other.