Links 15/07/2008: No More Solaris for Salesforce.com, New Migrations to GNU/Linux
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-07-15 10:40:41 UTC
- Modified: 2008-07-15 10:40:41 UTC
GNU/Linux
Qt/KDE
- Chinese educational handhelds get Qt
- KDE Commit Digest: Issue 114
Global keyboard shortcuts for applets, and an Amarok and "python expression" runner in Plasma. A Java test applet and various interaction improvements in Plasma. Simple network and CPU monitors in the system-monitor Plasmoid. Initial import of PeachyDock, a Plasma-based alternative panel.
F/OSS
OpenOffice.org
SaaS
Abuse of Rights
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
- The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
- For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
- Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
- su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
- Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
- A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
- What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
- Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
- A day later he speaks in Sweden
-
- Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
- Links for the day
- Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
- Links for the day
- Microsoft is Losing Europe
- Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
- The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
- New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
- Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
- Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
- What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
- XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
- Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
- not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
- Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
- Links for the day
- Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
- Links for the day
- Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
- Links for the day
- Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
- The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
- After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
- Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
- Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
- The core goal should be freedom
- Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
- Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
- Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
- users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
- IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
- IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
- Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
- In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
- Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
- These slopfarms help misplace blame
- Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
- Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
- Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
- Links for the day
- Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
- In Göteborg
- Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
- If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
- Justice for Wildlife
- animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
- Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
- Boys will be boys
- Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
- Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
- When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
- CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
- It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
- We may never know the dialogue or its nature
- Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
- Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
- GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
- Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
- Old Isn't Always Inadequate
- How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
- The Monkey Business of Rust People
- Compatibility won't matter
- Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
- That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
- Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
- Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
- Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
- We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
- British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
- That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
- We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
- avoid many perils of today's Web
- Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
- The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
- Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
- Links for the day
- 4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
- We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
- Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
- Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
- Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
- the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025
Comments
RyanT
2008-07-15 13:38:45
http://somethingmild.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-make-software-agreeable.html
Was wandering what you thought about it, and if it is right/good enough, maybe you could include it in a future links section.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-07-15 19:41:51
I've just included a link to this. It's also up for discussion in USENET and in http://digg.com/linux_unix/How_To_Make_Software_Agreeable http://tech.propeller.com/story/2008/07/15/how-to-make-software-agreeable/
Saul Goode
2008-07-15 20:20:59
I haven't read your piece in detail yet (I will do so this evening), but it seems well-written and addresses a growing concern with regard to licensing of copyrighted works.
I tend to disagree with the presumption that the existence of a licensing agreement excludes the concept "sale/purchasing". While the courts have occasionally been inconsistent, for the most part they (U.S. courts, anyway) recognize a one-time payment in exchange for use of the software as being a "sale", regardless of any verbiage included in an EULA or other license. A recent court case supporting this "quacks like duck" interpretation is the one involving Ebay sales of Autodesk software [1]. To summarize the decision, a EULA can not trump the laws of copyright in the case of a "sale" of a copyrighted work.
Another recent case which might be interpreted as supporting your position (assuming my basic understanding of your position is correct) would be the Blizzard World Of Warcraft lawsuit against the "Glider" bot [2]. However, I think the distinguishing characteristic of this case is that -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- WoW is a subscription service (not a one-time fee) and as such is more of an ongoing lease arrangement. At least I hope that this distinction was critical to the otherwise worrisome decision.
I hope that as further litigation is resolved, the courts will continue to interpret the "first sale doctrine" as valid and that if a company wishes to have their EULAs recognized as lease agreements then it must not employ "sales" of their software. Those parts of EULAs which would grant the copyright holder more prerogative than the exclusive rights delineated in copyright law should be considered invalid.
I look forward to perusing your article in depth and apologize if I have misinterpreted your position on the issue. It is certainly an issue which warrants further scrutiny and discussion.
[1]http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080523-court-smacks-autodesk-affirms-right-to-sell-used-software.html
[2]http://www.davis.ca/en/blog/Video-Game-Law/2007/02/26/WoW-LAWSUIT-OVER-BOT-SOFTWARE
RyanT
2008-07-15 23:42:51
If anyone wants to discuss further, I'll put my email here:
theamazingjanet@hotmail.co.uk
Not my main account, as this is public, but still. I look forward to the in-depth responses, and yes, Saul it seems you've gotten my position correct.
I might elaborate in future, which will most likely go down the path of the likes of the GPL and propriatary models purely becoming applicable to development, and only being extended in fringe cases, and the standard model of ownership being the common/middle ground. Even if not agreed upon by some, it would certainly be more agreeable than the licensed proprietary model (I hope).
RyanT
2008-07-15 23:44:34
Roy Schestowitz
2008-07-16 17:27:51