Open wide, let me put this in you

[Blog of Reason]

Discussion thread for the blog entry "Open wide, let me put this in you" by Prolescum.

Permalink: http://blog.leagueofreason.org.uk/news/open-wide-let-me-put-this-in-you/

 

[Aught3]

Nice work Prolescum, and fast too. I like the very educational style as I don't know too much around the definitions and philosophy of FOSS. I would certainly enjoy more posts in this series

The only other disadvantage I can think of is similar to the retraining issue in that most people coming in to the workplace are going to be more familiar with Proprietary Software so it will create a slightly higher learning curve for new entrants. But since taking on a new job is almost always a high learning curve this is probably not a big deal.

 

[Prolescum]

Nice work Prolescum, and fast too.

Thanks! Although I wrote the post earlier this evening... Synchronicity?

I like the very educational style as I don't know too much around the definitions and philosophy of FOSS. I would certainly enjoy more posts in this series

Series...? Right, I'll give it a go.

The only other disadvantage I can think of is similar to the retraining issue in that most people coming in to the workplace are going to be more familiar with Proprietary Software so it will create a slightly higher learning curve for new entrants. But since taking on a new job is almost always a high learning curve this is probably not a big deal.

True, but I don't regard it as a curve as much as I do a hillock; most things work in pretty much the same way, (keyboard shortcuts are generally the same to name one).

As an example, here's my computer as it is right now:

It has an applications menu (for programs to sit in), a directory menu (to access specific folders), a running program, a clock/calendar menu, and a corner full of indicators. If you couldn't see the image, I could be describing any modern desktop.

 

[WarK]

There's the example of Munich. The government there decided to switch from proprietary software to open source.

They made their own distribution of Linux distribution called LiMux

This article discusses some of the reason why they decided to switch from proprietary to open source. Cost wasn't the main reason. Being independent was.

Another problem with proprietary software is that it's insecure. As a user you can't be sure if the software you use doesn't have backdoors in it or if it isn't sending your private information to a company or a government. With open source all the source code is open for everyone to read. If Linus Torvalds, the creator and maintainer of Linux kernel, wanted to put a back door into Linux kernel (and apparently he was approached by the US government) someone would've spotted it.

 

[Prolescum]

Actually, Linus was joking about that. But yes, there are too many people and businesses working on the kernel for any one person or team to slip that sort of thing past, and even if it did, and it passed the maintainers, it would be noticed by the distributions themselves, patched upstream, and the particular kernel version held back (except maybe Arch users, but they probably deserve being knocked down a peg or two).

Gives me an idea for another post: Distro Wars!

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

Even though Linux is open source, you're still advised to "build your own" by aficionados rather than rely on downloaded distros being kosher.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[Prolescum]

Greetings,

Even though Linux is open source, you're still advised to "build your own" by aficionados Arch Linux users rather than rely on downloaded distros being kosher.

Kindest regards,

James

Fixed that for you

There are communities of zealous users who condescend to anyone not using [insert disto here] and Awesome. It's simply a risible form of elitism, in my view. I think it's a bit daft not to put some faith in Red Hat et al to pick up on code that makes their products insecure; it's vital to their server business. Then there are the derivative distibutions: centOS (based on RHEL) runs half the internet, and Ubuntu (based on Debian) is the popular choice for Amazon's EC2.

Of course, it isn't too big to fail, but I believe the failure, were it to occur, would be fleeting.

Although It's relatively easy to roll your own (Prolebuntu!), it's much simpler just to, say, switch out the kernel for another, assuming that's where the theoretical backdoor is. Modularity is another benefit of open source software (not limited to Linux distributions).

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

Greetings,

Even though Linux is open source, you're still advised to "build your own" by aficionados Arch Linux users rather than rely on downloaded distros being kosher.

Kindest regards,

James

Fixed that for you

There are communities of zealous users who condescend to anyone not using [insert disto here] and Awesome. It's simply a risible form of elitism, in my view. I think it's a bit daft not to put some faith in Red Hat et al to pick up on code that makes their products insecure; it's vital to their server business. Then there are the derivative distibutions: centOS (based on RHEL) runs half the internet, and Ubuntu (based on Debian) is the popular choice for Amazon's EC2.

Of course, it isn't too big to fail, but I believe the failure, were it to occur, would be fleeting.

Although It's relatively easy to roll your own (Prolebuntu!), it's much simpler just to, say, switch out the kernel for another, assuming that's where the theoretical backdoor is. Modularity is another benefit of open source software (not limited to Linux distributions).

Granted - it's also the "Big Government" types who do this.

Another option is the "Linux from scratch" method.

Personally, I'm not a Linux user - I've played with Ubuntu within a VM, now and then, but didn't particularly see the point in switching: mainly due to the lack of applications.

Besides, as the saying goes, "Windows isn't for doing anything - it's for fixing!" - and I like fixing it.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[Aught3]

mainly due to the lack of applications.

Oh Prolescum...you're up

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

mainly due to the lack of applications.

Oh Prolescum...you're up

:shock: At the time I last looked!!

Kindest regards,

James

 

[Prolescum]

Heh, my next related post isn't application-centric, but I will do one soon. It can be somewhat research intensive.