<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Anthony, Having to agree to a license is not opposed to being free... in fact, the GPL license which covers most of the Linux code is far from giving free rights to you to do anything with it. You also have obligations, and quite strong ones in particular if you are a developer. For example, GPL *FORBIDS* you to develop code by taking from the source base of a GPL application and using that in a closed source proprietary application. This is an extremely constraining obligation / restriction that, as a developer, you NEED to be aware of, and agree to. As people from Linksys and a few other linux-based hardware boxes realized a bit late, they are forced by the license (which, if they had thorowly read and knowingly agreed to, might have led to different choice of platform) to give out the source of their product's firmware. Whether it is a good thing for users... or for Linksys is a different argument... but nevertheless, there is a license that governs the use of Linux. And when you install and decide to use a Linux based distro, and other applications, you have to understand the licenses that apply to them and you have to agree to what they entitle you to do... but also what obligations you have. I'm not opposed to having to agree to a license agreement... even in the context of free / open source software. The difference between that license and a proprietary license is what makes all the difference and it's important to know which differences you are actually agreeing to. And it should be an explicit agreement rather than an implicit... Some stuff in your Linux distro are under GPL, some under LGPL, some under BSD, and even in some distros, some are under proprietary license. Do you know which is which? Do you really know what you are allowed to do with each piece of code on your Ubuntu (or other distro)? Again, this is not extremely constraining if you are a user... but it might mean the difference between your company being prosperous, or dieing to a lawsuit if you are a developer. Gilles. Anthony M Simonelli wrote: <blockquote cite="mid1168109617.5273.12.camel@ams-laptop" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On Sat, 2007-01-06 at 17:17 +0100, Knapp wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Are you saying you're going to use OpenSuse instead of Ubuntu? I couldn't leave the Debian based distros. If I were ever to leave Ubuntu, it would be for Debian. I just like running a current desktop and current Gnome, which Ubuntu provides. On Sat, 2007-01-06 at 10:19 -0500, Julian Alarcon wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">JEJE, and I chose Ubuntu 3 Months ago upper Opensuse.. JEJEJE.. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">Saying goodbye to Ubuntu for some other distro is one thing but Suse? Is that not a bit like getting on the titanic after it hits the iceberg? Sure it is a nice ship with a good design but? Douglas </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">There are people who question Shuttleworth and Canonical's motive behind Ubuntu and the "corporate involvement" makes people suspicious, but openSuse? I tried out 10.2 and I actually had to agree to a license agreement from Novell! The only times I've had to do that was for Lin/Freespire (understandable), Fedora and openSuse. This doesn't seem 'free' to me. OpenSuse seems like one of those distros that assumes the user is clueless and tries to do everything for the user automagically and is heavily customized while Ubuntu seems to stay a hacker distro while being a convenient Debian. Am I totally off or does anyone agree? </pre> </blockquote> <div class="moz-signature">-- <meta content="text/html; " http-equiv="content-type"> <title>Signature Home Chastity</title> <meta content="Gilles Gravier" name="author"> <div style="text-align: left;"> <table style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); width: 500px; height: 73px;" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); white-space: nowrap;"> <div style="text-align: center; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"><tt>Gilles Gravier = <a href="mailto:Gilles@Gravier.org">Gilles@Gravier.org</a> = <a href="http://www.gravier.org/">http://www.gravier.org/</a></tt> </div> <div style="text-align: center; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"><tt>ICQ : <a href="http://www.icq.com/whitepages/about_me.php?Uin=77488526">77488526</a></tt> <tt> || </tt><tt>MSN Messenger : <a href="http://members.msn.com/Gilles@Gravier.org">Gilles@Gravier.org</a></tt><tt> </tt>Skype<tt> : <a href="callto://ggravier">ggravier</a></tt><tt> || </tt><tt>Y! : <a href="http://profiles.yahoo.com/ggravier">ggravier</a></tt><tt style="font-weight: bold;"> || </tt><tt>AOL : <a href="aim:goim?screenname=gillesgravier">gillesgravier</a> </tt><tt>PGP Key ID : <a href="http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x8DE6D026&op=index">0x8DE6D026</a></tt> </div> <div style="text-align: center; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"><tt>"Chastity is its own punishment." (Solomon Short) [David Gerrold] </tt>"De toutes les aberrations sexuelles, la chasteté est la plus aberrante." [Anatole France] </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </body> </html>