[nmglug] Re: nmglug Digest, Vol 20, Issue 19

[Jason Davis]

> theregister.co.uk is not that supportive of Linux, and neither are
> linuxbusinessnews or linuxinsider.  And probably others.  Anyone can
> buy a linux URL and try to appear to be Linux friendly, and instead use
> it to try to hold Linux at bay as long as possible.  For a lot of
> people, it is their job that is threatened by Linux, and when something
> that important is threatened, something will be done about it. 
> Whatever they can think of.  Perhaps illegal and/or violent.
> 
> So this Register guy is spinning the story, and this already happened
> quite a while ago.  He needs to make it sound dramatic or nobody will
> read it.
> 
> It is interesting that they say that the BK program found a back door
> that some programmer was trying to put in.  Well, BK might put in a
> back door and not find it.  Putting in a back door is quite common. 
> Many kernel hackers probably have the ability to do it.  
> 
> I just thought Linus had mixed feelings about BK.  It is proprietary,
> but it works so much faster than anything else, he just wanted to use
> it.  It is like he can have a clean car that maxes out at 20 mph
> (without BK), but (with BK) he can go 75 mph in a car that had 10
> gallons of yogurt spilled all over the inside of it.  There is a
> general disadvantage of the smell of it (like having to use proprietary
> to develop open source), but if you roll down the window and stick your
> head out while driving, you can still go 75, and its not too bad.  
> 

I don't really have a problem with closed source software. I believe one
should use the best tool for the job (this is why I code with Java ..
and not C). I am not upset that Linux was using BK , it's a nice tool.
But I do have a problem with Linus giving Andrew Tridgell any flack at
all. Reverse engineering is how stuff gets built in the open source
world .You don't hear Linus complaining about Samba or the many programs
that will read and write word docs. That's all I was getting at.

jd