What is Digg?62 Comments
- syberghost, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39No.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+32.........HUH!? That is the most confusing "description" I've ever read for a front-page Digg submission. What did you do, take a completely random sentence from the middle of the article and just paste it in?
- circeus, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Sure, about the same time they abolish patents.
- brianmuse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Off topic, so I'm sure this post will be buried. But does anyone else notice that this guy has four stories on the homepage? I know he's one of the top users, so people digg his stuff, but c'mon, this story isn't even that good. And is ""Cold War" for Linux is Ready" really front page worthy? Are any?
Don't get me wrong here. I am a huge Digg fan and I would never start using a clone. But I've gotta say: this gets me down.
Maybe I'm off base here. - kubudubudubuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8face it, Microsoft will not 'just dissepear'..
- taylorhayward, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9I can't get my programmers to look at their own source.
- DPyro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Again, no. Most software will be, but some won't. These may include defense software, certain firmwares, and certain server software. Client software will probably be OSS, though.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"FOSS advocates, do you think it would be ideal if /every/ single solitary piece of software created would be open source? I personally think a mixture of FOSS and proprietary software would be ideal to entice competition but still maintain healthy economic opportunities."
YES!!! But here I go again trying to explain quantum physics to another Fred Flintstone:
Look: recipees for cooking are all open source. You can get recipees for free online, check out a recipee book from the library. Yet walk into the bookstore and there's all the books for sale! Opening cooking technology didn't kill the cook book market! How can that be???
Here: Drive a car? Is the hood padlocked shut? Are socket sets and screwdrivers against the law so you can't fix it? No, you can work on your own car if you want to. There's an auto parts store every six blocks or so in the city. Hobbyists compete at car shows to show off their mods. Yet mechanics are still in business! How could this be possible?
Sex: You can get it for free! It's even against the law to *not* get it for free! Yet 'the world's oldest profession' is still chugging along and doing business, vice squad be damned! How is this possible?
Hey, I can do my own taxes for free, yet H&R Block is still in business! I can be allowed to represent myself in court, yet attorneys still get rich! I can grow my own food in the backyard, yet groceries still seem to be doing well! In fact, could you pretty please show me ONE business in the entire history of economic commerce which could be shown to have been disolved just because everybody was allowed to practice it? What color IS the sky in the world where this vile idiocy masquerading as an argument in favor of enslaving all the world's technology in subjugation to one billionaire came to be?
Pardon me for sounding so exasperated, but this is about the billionth time I've had this argument and I've given up on being right or wrong or convincing anybody, I just want to find out what the closed-technology-forever crowd has been smoking and where I can score a bag. - RichPowers, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9No, not any time soon. But maybe someday.
- Akkarin128, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Oh, I agree with you. It gets increasingly annoying when better and more interesting stories get hidden, and when I see plenty of useful and informative/well thought out comments getting modded down because people disagree.
- netrah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Open source, like communism, will give way to the open market capitalistic system.
- Kazrog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3When monkeys fly out of my ass.
- ph30nix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5HaHa...
not a chance - Apreche, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7In the beginning of digital computing all software was open source. It was until IBM and Microsoft that closed source software really took off. I think that centuries from now they will view closed source software as a short-lived fad.
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Okay, time for another experiment.
FOSS advocates, do you think it would be ideal if /every/ single solitary piece of software created would be open source?
I personally think a mixture of FOSS and proprietary software would be ideal to entice competition but still maintain healthy economic opportunities. - salmonmoose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Name another industry where people work for free? Or, even another industry that gives out it's secrets. IP is a highly valuable commodity, be it code, production methods, or the recipe for Coke.
The best we can hope for is companies leaning towards support for open standards. - kylefox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Open source is not like communism.
Would you be more likely to buy a vehicle that lets you pop the hood? Or one whose engine block has been encased in concrete by the manufacturer?
As software becomes easier to develop, it becomes more of a commodity. The more of a commodity it becomes, the more control business will want over the software they purchase.
And yes, you CAN sell open source code (or support for it). - babakshirazi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2
Quality is relative. It's better to have a new feature that works 90% of the time in some cases as opposed to not having that feature at all. Some capabilities that exist in Windows but not on Linux fit this profile (e.g. EVDO card support)
OSS doesn't automatically make the quality better. There are plenty of security holes that exist in Linux and according to many reports even more than Windows.
There's a lot more to OSS than OSes though. Once you open source your software, you lose your intellectual property which is the bread and butter of most companies. No more trade secrets for you.
Also, OSS applications are easily fragmented (e.g. Linux) and can lead to worse compatibility issues. Which Linux distro will this app work on again??
The good thing is that you don't need to buy companies that deal in open source, you just take their code and say thanks as Larry Ellison recently said about JBoss - no need to buy JBoss when you can just take their code. Your R&D cost go to zero.
OSS is great for the end user, eventually the companies end up paying for support anyway and whatever they used to pay in licensing fees are now eaten up by consulting services expenses.
IBM Global services loves the open source racket. - cquinnd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In the beginning of digital computing, software was controlled and managed by the government for use in warfare calculations and code-breaking.
- argoff, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Yes it will. What's happening today has happened thousands of times thru out history. Society is entering the information age, and is causing information to become commoditized, and is causing the service value of information to exceed controlling the content value, and is creating trillions of dollars worth of pressure to kill the current system.
If history is any precedent, copyrights and anything else that controls content distribution are in deep trouble and thus so is Microsoft and Hollywood. The problems they are facing now are likely to be barely the incy wincy beginning of what's too come as things like Linux and p2p are getting ready to explode.
Just as the commoditisation of labor led to the ugly death of the plantation system, and the commoditisation agriculture led to the ugly death of the feudal system, and the commoditisation of printing led to the breakup of a single church in Europe who controlled all the bibles that were copied by hand. Just as the commoditisation of distribution led to fall of the railroad barons. The clock really is running out the media industries and anyone else who centers around content control instead of content related services.
One more thing, the death of copyrights is not a bad thing. If someone made a copy of my garden - it might make it difficult for me to charge an entrance fee to mine, but it will probably make it easier to offer gardening services. - compu73rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"No, as long as their are big wigs wanting money in their pocket it won't happen."
Or people out there trying to make a buck off their skills. - bdaily, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well, you seem to have a nice grasp on the situation. Sigh.
Don't forget all the "small wigs" out there who create (and support) software for a living. Good will and fuzzy feelings will not and do not pay the bills. - i440, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmm. I'm skeptical about that.
somerandomnerd, credible evidence please. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What stupidity. Nobody, nobody, nobody codes for free, ever. Never happened, never will. Open source will make ALL of us richer than we are now. Hey, anybody can write, but I still get paid to write. Anybody can web-design, but I still get paid for doing plain old HTML. Anybody can create graphics, but my graphics still make money. When all source is open through and through, do you think the need for new programs is simply going to fly away? No, that will just remove the barriers to actually getting some real problems solved for a change. What, you don't think Red Hat, Google, or IBM pay their programmers for working on open-source projects?
What's that you say? I even have program code posted on my own site to give away? Yes, I do have some small shell scripts and such up. Also graphics, free for the taking. I even do open-source graphics work for free by request for distros and such. But the work is always attributed to me in the release and there's the link for my site. Have you ever heard of this business concept called "advertizing?" So, no, even when you give it away, it's not for free. It brings you paying customers. It puts polish on your resume. It sells cafe-press T-shirts, if that's your bag. It opens doors.
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't only the open-source people who really understand anything about Capitalism at all! - i440, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2But spellcheck apparently will! Tee-hee!
I think I spelled 'spellcheck' wrong...one word or two? - tonyedit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Haahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaa ALL SOFTWARE OPEN SOURCE? AAAAAAAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa. Funny.
- Inaeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To: WickedLogic
I second that assessment! My family lives in Fargo, ND, where the biggest software company is a sub-company (or some other financial term) of Microsoft called Great Plains Software. They work on CRM.
My family has been trying to get me to live in Fargo and work for this company for years.
Needless to say, I'm still in Seattle looking for more exciting software work. But, then again, not everyone can be 3D engine creators or Physics Engines specialists, so I guess with my little home based business I will stay. At least it pays the bills and gives me something interesting or new to do every week.
Inaeth
"He was opinionated while being ignorant of everything. I knew he had a career in politics." -George Bernard Shaw - Quakes, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Agreed & buried.
- mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Never in a free market system. I am 100% capitalist, but I choose to use OSS because I feel it provides a higer quality product, most of the time. However, as long as people will buy software (which people/companies always will), all software will never go fully oss, at least not gpl (perhaps an OSS that still costs money - but that would be all too easy to pirate).
- wulfflower, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I totally agree. Why not just use THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, even the second paragraph would have been great.
- gahmahn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3No, as long as their are big wigs wanting money in their pocket it won't happen.
- frontbrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In cases where you can sell support contracts and enhancement contracts: maybe. In other cases where software does not need much support from the developer, or it would be hard to sell that support: No.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Never fails. Can't click twice on the Internet without popping up a Microsoft ad. Every aisle of the computer store is dominated by those dumb Windows stickers. Turn the TV to any channel, there's Microsoft commercials. Nobody complains.
Somebody with no possibility of financial gain makes an honest testamonial about their favorite software that doesn't happen to be Microsoft, all you hear is bitch, bitch, bitch. Hey, Windows users, what happened to your favorite phrase: "If you don't like it, then leave!" ? - kylefox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Not all software will go open source. But a strong, strong business model for open-source is inevitable, and companies who open-source their products are likely to push past proprietary code vendors within 5-7 years.
I personally doubted the economic viability of OSS until hearing these two podcasts, both featuring Larry Augustin. He makes some astounding points about why open-source makes better business sense than closed source. Listen with an "open" mind:
Open Source Business Models - Money Pit or Money Machine
http://www.sandhill.com/rssfeeds/podcasts.php
FLOSS Interview with Larry Augustin
http://www.twit.tv/floss6 - montagg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@argoff:
Consider though that the loss of ownership of information also means that YOU own none of the information related to you, such as your name, address, or phone number, and that without such ownership things like Spam and data mining become impossible to stop by way of laws. You would have no legal basis to restrict that information since precedent would allow anyone who can get their hands on the information to do whatever they want with it. - opusagogo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1funny how they quote mark spensor, whose company has an open source product, but the first thing they do when you call them is that they try to sell you their closed sourced version (asterisk business edition). And on top of that if you want to contribute to the asterisk source code you basically have to sign a waiver giving away all rights away to their company for nothing in return.
- Escamillo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1argof, you're assuming that software is information, just because software consists of bits. Not every thing that consists of bits is "information". Binary programs aren't "information" in that a human can't make sense of it as such.
- rodtrent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"that don't take a lot of Linux know-how to be created"
But like any piece of software, you have to have the know-how to protect it. Security will always be an issue, and it'll be an even bigger issue the more you try to dumb-down the software. - colinodell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1All software is already open source! All you need is a really good hex editor. Or a decompiler. I prefer the former.
- nfotxn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are lots of applications that should have closed source. For instance IRS software that calculates who to audit or other policing and military software. Security software that polices a proprietary network for purposes like EFT fraud (ie. Mastercard or Visa) wouldn't be in the best interest of the design.
I know the counter arguement here is to say that more eyes even on software dealing with sensitive issues makes it even more secure and sound. But this is where F/OSS gets waaaay too orthodox and starts believing in a perfect world. Where all software is fetidiously engineered to the best engineering principals of the moment. Anyone who's worked in software QA knows this is hardly ever the case for projects of any scope. This is also way development cycles leading to saleable software. As an example it took nearly 6 years to go from the open sourcing of Mozilla to get to version 1.0 of Firefox.
I think to many experienced software engineers it's clear what F/OSS works well for and what it doesn't. I'm weary of any philosophy that calls heresy when you suggest that it's not perfect. F/OSS is new and good for lots of applications, but everything? No. - kylefox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"no need to buy JBoss when you can just take their code"
I would bet this approach would cost more, in the end, than purchasing from JBoss.
The code might be free, but you have to pay your people to 1) acquire it, 2) implement it 3) support it. And since it's unlikely they are as knowledgeable in this area as the JBoss people are, it will probably take longer and cost more than just coughing up and having JBoss do it [correctly] for you. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Look at most open source software and you will that once the "sexy" code is written, the programmers go on to something else. They leave the project with small bugs, bad UI design, missing features, missing documentation, etc.
I can hear your argument now: "But, it's open source! They can add features and fix bugs!". No, most users can't. Most people don't know how to program and most people are not willing pay someone to make a change when they can go to a store and buy software that is finished. - somerandomnerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If your memory doesn't stretch that far back, just look at any piece about the history of software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
Or ask yourself why, when the first personal computer was released, Bill Gates felt compelled to defend the idea of selling users software, rather than giving it away for free;
http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No.
People like quality and ease of use with their software.
Hardware manufactures know that information about trade secret hardware can be pulled out of drivers.
Managers like a single source to turn to for support and blame when things go wrong. - Aninhumer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No.
There will almost certainly be a way to do everything with open source software, and lots of software companies will open their code.
But not all of them, some will just slowly go bankrupt with their source code. - chad78, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1to the title - um, NO.
- AxisOfEvo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Software will cost money as long as food does too.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Doing what, with who, and how do I get a job there?
- wickedlogic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Some markets are so boring that talented programmers won't work for them. Trust me, I make good money working in one of them, and we can barely get people to work for more than 6 months in it. and it's legit and legal, just mind numblingly boring.
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