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Stallman: If you want freedom don't follow Linus Torvalds
The founder of the Free Software Foundation asks readers whether they will fight for freedom or be too lazy to resist.
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Richard Stallman - President Free Software Foundation
What's more important to you, GNU's huge user base or its large developer base?
Stallman: I appreciate them both, but neither is what matters most. We didn't develop GNU just to make it a technical triumph, or just to have a success. Our goal was to win freedom, for ourselves and for you.
What's important about GNU is that it provides a way to use computers in freedom. But this achievement is precarious. There are hundreds of GNU/Linux distros, and nearly all include some non-free software.
In 1992, GNU/Linux made it possible for the first time to use a PC and keep your freedom. By 2000, ironically, every version of GNU/Linux included non-free software and thus invited users to surrender their freedom by installing some. Today, I am glad to say, the Ututo and gNewSense distributions are 100 percent free software.
After so many years, are you finally seeing the end of the tunnel, the time when free software will regain its original place, by dominating servers during the next decade?
Stallman: Server operators should have freedom, of course, but the computers that directly affect most users' freedom are the computers they type on. Those are the computers where the adoption of free software is most important. With proprietary operating systems increasingly designed to restrict and control the user, with digital "restrictions" management, their users are subjugated even more now than before. If you don't want chains on you hand and foot, your only escape is to switch to a free operating system.
People use terms like "free software" and "open source" as if they were the same thing. Is that right?
Stallman: In terms of ideas, free software and open source are as different as could be. Free software is a political movement; open source is a development model.
The free software movement is concerned with ethical and social values. Our goal is to win, for computer users, the freedom to cooperate and control your own computing. Therefore, you should have these four essential freedoms for each program you use:
0. To run the program as you wish. 1. To study the source code and change it so the program does what you wish. 2. To redistribute exact copies when you wish, either giving them away or selling them. 3. To distribute copies of your modified versions when you wish.
The term "open source" was promoted in 1998 by people that did not want to say "free" or "freedom." They associated their term with a philosophy that cites only values of practical convenience.
Supporters of open source (which I am not) promote a "development model" in which users participate in development, claiming that this typically makes software "better" -- and when they say "better", they mean that only in a technical sense. By using the term that way, implicitly, they say that only practical convenience matters -- not your freedom.
I don't say they are wrong, but they are missing the point. If you neglect the values of freedom and social solidarity, and appreciate only powerful reliable software, you are making a terrible mistake.
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The destiny of blu-ray ”last
The destiny of blu-ray
”last year is the beginning,and this year blu-ray will enter the market formally”, Andy Parsons ,The chairman of blu-ray association said.
Last year, the hottest news of CES isn’t the birth of new technology,but its death.For Woner Brothers won’t support HD DVD,it’s really shake the market,at the mean time,blu-ray become the queen of home entertainment.
However,this year, the price of blu-ray fall to $200,which seems to be a international joke. What’s more,Sony and Disny,the supporter of blu-ray,is wondering whether the door of blu-ray is shutting down.
OK,the reason of this phenomena is that the numeric media service is occuping the market.For instance,LG,the company from Korea,realeased a HD TV which can connect with the internet without STB.”Because of the press of downloadable HD Film,blu-ray is confronted with the possibility of being washed out.” Roger L. Kay said,who’s the CEO of Endpoint Technologies Associates
So the possible reason,some experts believe in, is that people have less knowledge of blu-ray and it’s worthless to cost so much to buy a blu-ray device.Compared with cassert,DVD has higher quality and it’s more convenient.While,Blu-ray has no more advantage in comparision of DVD. At least,for msot people,ordinary dvd and Stream format is enough.Moeover,only if they got a blu-ray format disk,they can convert blu-ray to ordinary DVD or other
stream format,for example,
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Rob Enderle, the CEO of Enderle Group,said,it’s a dangerous signal that HD film has better selling performance,blu-ray is a transition technology and i don’t think it can replace DVD.
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