Fedora Desktop future- RedHat moves

[Les Mikesell]

Craig White wrote:
> 
>>> the impatience of youth...
>> Remote offices have this thing about not liking to be down for years.
> ----
> thankfully there are people with vision and knowledge that can navigate
> these troubled waters.
> ----

In spite of the efforts of OS distributions to make that difficult.

>> It's not about bitching so much as 
>> a reality check for other people's lies supporting their own agendas.
> ----
> ah but you're missing one teensy, weensy bit of information here...that
> you actually have the source code so you can continue to use it even
> when it becomes orphaned.

Yes, I could have gotten a copy of the source code that it's own author 
and the experts involved in the OS packaging couldn't fix.  That's just 
wonderful.

> With proprietary software, you don't have the
> source code, you cannot rebuild it when the OS changes, you cannot fix
> bugs, you are left completely out to dry.

That's not an issue - the point is that it is unrealistic to think it is 
unique to proprietary code, or even more likely.  There have been many 
instances of previously proprietary code having its source released as 
the product was abandoned.  Yet everyone pretends that it is an issue 
because it supports their agenda.

> What you're really complaining
> about is that Fedora stopped packaging cipe but that never precluded you
> from packaging it yourself and maintaining it yourself.

What I'm really complaining about is that an interface changed without 
backwards compatibility and nobody cared about the damage it caused.

> I think you need to talk to Real World Accounting users in order to
> consider the real ramifications when the proprietary software you are
> using ceases to exist to get real perspective. If Microsoft succeeds in
> taking over Yahoo...you're likely to see the vaporization of Zimbra. The
> dangers of committing to proprietary software should never be
> diminished.

The thing you should commit to are interfaces and standards - this lets 
you replace components without worrying about whether they are 
proprietary or not.  But if you walk away from your interfaces 
particularly without supplying replacements for the things that will 
break, no one can be expected to trust you.

> I recognize your point about firewire but it has worked for me whenever
> I used my combo firewire/usb hard drive and my earlier iPod which used
> firewire. I do recall reading about some issues with firewire but never
> had to confront them directly so I can't say that I noticed. I think the
> firewire issue is somewhat off point.

The specific instance isn't the point here.  It is just an example that 
I have personal experience with where the proprietary binary flavors 
have worked for a decade or more with no problem, yet I keep hearing the 
lies that interfaces don't matter and binary drivers are a problem.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com