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Re: Kclug Digest, Vol 39, Issue 2
by gary hildebrand 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

Piracy happened when the cost of software (including o/s's) was prohibitive. Remember when a copy of Wordstar for cp/m was priced at around $500? Same thing happened with 8 track tapes in the 60's and 70's, and videos in the early 80's. Video rentals were created to combat the high cost of movie ownership. In the case of Micro$oft, their actual cost per copy (legitimate) is about $15 give or take a few clams. Then they charge $50-100 for the 'use' of that software. They're loosing not $15, but the retail value, and that being their cash cow, they prosecute hackers. If they would price their product at less than 100% markup, maybe they wouldn't have the problem of piracy. Then it would be cheaper to buy the legitimate version instead of a pirated copy. This is what happened with home videos. In layman's terms, a fast $5 is beter than a slow $80. Considering the D+ performance of Windows, and what you pay for it, I'd say $20 a copy is more than it is worth. Of course it is profitable to all those who have written spyware, virii, and trojans for Windows, making it emininantly simple for unknown people to electronically spy on your computer . . . where we store sensitive information, thinking it to be 'secure'. My two bytes worth . . . Gary Hildebrand St. Joseph, MO On 10/1/07, kclug-request(a)kclug.org <kclug-request(a)kclug.org> wrote: > > > On 9/30/07, feba thatl <febaen(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I'm curious as to what some of you think of Windows piracy. Do you think > > it's alright if it's only done to run software that only works on > Windows > > due to MS's monopolistic tactics? > > I generally do not bother with any piracy which is not for profit. > > > Do you think it's alright if it replaces > > the purchase of a legit copy, as it hurt's MS's profit margin? > > Not exactly the best rationale, but if that's what makes one feel better. > > > Do you think > > it's always bad? Do you think that software should always be free > anyway? > > There are few cases where i think _use_ of software should be free. > > > Are your decisions about this based on law or morals? > > I would say neither, more like my own personal conclusions. > > > Personally, I don't pirate software anymore, and it pisses me off to see > my > > friends downloading *yet another copy of windows* to reinstall with > *again*, > > instead of trying linux, but that's more about their lack of a brain > than it > > is piracy. > > Yah well, if Windows couldn't be pirated, it would have MUCH less > popularity. I haven't had to pirate a copy of Windows in ages, most > since I get free copies these days. Whenever I stop getting free > copies, I doubt I'll be too bothered about downloading it myself. The > bandwidth would be better used downloading the latest version of > Fedora or CentOS >

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The drifted SCO thread has opened a new arena. "IS there a place for a de facto IP freedom realm"
by Oren Beck 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

All the rhetoric which has been beaten like dead horses aside, there is a new angle seemingly lacking intelligent discussion. It was claimed IIRC by Stewart Brand that "Information wants to be free" Then you know who introduced the Beer Vs Freedom meme. Yet what the hell is meant by those in our mundane world? Want in one hand and wish in the other if you want two empty hands was what I'd been told all my life. AkA "TANSTAAFL" So who pays the bills if all is free? Ah, there's the problem. Sadly one not answerable by 42. Allegedly the term "Copyleft" at one time literally was found on buttons at cons proclaiming "all rights reversed" Then again,in the DRM ethos all rights are denied absent the de minimus and even those are dubious. See the real purpose of HDMI for example. Or read most EULA of closed source origin. All this IS heading to a point. The succession of GPL versions have made varying approaches to rational handling of the disparate interests involved. I humbly offer a radically simpler reboot of the gaming.. Can we function under a guideline of honor as a bond? That means a declaration of mutual self respect for declared IP rights including their inalienable repudiation from another' profit? Yes, the applied fiction of repudiation is arguably incorrect legal semantics but it spotlights a gap I feel needs attention. Currently all the Diverse IP statues seem lacking in an instrumentality where an IP creator can declare their work as property of all while denying commercial interests from privatising in a restrictive manner such works. One proposal is for granting works their own incarnation. There is legal precedent for chattels being of limited yet real court standing. My closing example for now is a proposal for one symbol possible as denoting such . A circle surrounding a F. Simply put that denotes in a better future than we deserve an IP item could be used but not sold or profited from in a manner that would diminish it's freedom to others. DO please try to pick apart this concept but be mindful that history is trending to a fork. Either the F in the circle or another emblem in a circle of more grim history.

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Re: Say "Bye-Bye SCO!"
by lerninlinux＠comcast.net 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "David Nicol" <davidnicol(a)gmail.com> > but they do have a microsoft linux; it's called "Interix" and it is now > a free download, called "Microsoft Services for Unix" > I am wondering how long that stays. Part of what was in it, at least at one time was GPL. Now with GPL3 and it's Patent protection parts (that's argued, but hasn't been tried), I wonder how long Microsoft will distribute it. As for SCO, I DO want them to face the judge, get declaratory statements about things like they did contribute (shown in court), and distribute Linux, despite what their current SCO "allegedly" thinks. I do want them declared in VIOLATION of the GPL, on IBM's account (as well as others whose works are in there). And I do want them to have judgments against them and face the SEC for fraud investigations.

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P2P Package Manager
by Billy Crook 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

Has anyone ever heard of a package manager that 'scans' other machines within its subnet or within specified subnets for updates before using the official repositories? There would either have to be some service advertisement protocol lime MDNS or each machine would literally have to scan for a designated port number listening for these requests on all machines. Once they locate each other, the idea would be ome machine downloads 500MB of updates from the repo, and from there on, every other machine (with the same distro and arch) just pulls from the faster local machine, rather than using up inet bandwidth. Any suggestions (Other than a dedicated local repository mirror)?

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(no subject)
by Jared Smith 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

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OS CRM
by Jonathan Hutchins 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Got a friend looking for a good CRM/CMS system. He's familiar with Act, which I've set up for clients before, but I seem to remember hearing that there was a good OS project that had a lot of momentum. If you actually know of something like this, or someone who's using it, even if it's a good Windows product as opposed to OS, please let me know. (Not being a coder or database guy, I'm not interested in suggestions as to how such a program should be written, structured, licensed, or packaged.)

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RE: ITEC
by Michael Haworth 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

As to the Beryl requirements, my Toshiba Satelite laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 works just fine (2.8GHz / 1 GB ram / Ubuntu 7.04), it also does pretty well with Compiz Fusion. I have tried installing Vista on this same computer, and M$ throws a tantrum over it. My video card rates at a 1.0 (basically telling me that it sucks by windows standards) and I can't run any of the aero interface. The laptop itself is only 4 years old and not even close to hitting middle-aged. --- snip ---

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logwatch question
by Jonathan Hutchins 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

I have not been able to fathom the logwatch documentation, which appears to be targeted at building custom log-parsing filters as opposed to basic control of the program. The package distributed by Mandriva is configured to report httpd errors. Our site gets way more than 10,000 hits per day, and has been up for more than ten years. The error log is several megabytes long, and logwatch doesn't even summarize, it reports EVERY ERROR. I don't really need it to scan the httpd logs, how can I turn that off?

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Re: ITEC-potential FUD or facts worth sharing?
by Oren Beck 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

http://badvista.fsf.org/ If we *REALLY* wanted to play the mindgaming edge that could do it.

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Re: ITEC
by Leo Mauler 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

Last year I stuck a video on "FOSS adoption in developing countries" on the demo Linux PC. This year I ran across a site which served up Creative Commons video for download, and have a number of new videos to choose from. I'm considering trying to scrounge up a 1.4Ghz or 1.5Ghz machine as the demo PC, since apparently Ubuntu's "Beryl" desktop runs comfortably at that speed. It would be nice to be able to demonstrate a Linux desktop which offered more eye candy than Vista on systems which won't run Vista. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/

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