
The GPL self-destruct mechanism that is killing Linux - iProject
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/09/opensource_festering_hacks/
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dazzawazza
I am no lover of Linux (BSD for me) and I am no lover of the GPL (MIT or 3BSD
for me) but I have no idea what this article is actually trying to say.

The proliferation of user space apps doesn't kill an OS. You could argue the
GPL helps it but again, that's not the OS. Windows also has many duplicate
apps that are not very good. No GPL there.

The ".. pile of old festering hacks, endlessly copied and pasted by a clueless
generation of IT 'professionals' who wouldn't recognise sound IT architecture
if you hit them over the head with it.." is true in all spheres and isn't
fostered by the GPL.

Am I missing something?

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tangue
Tech journalism in 2012 :

\- Find some quotes (preferably rants) from random sources, vaguely related to
your subject

\- Add vague historical references

\- Choose a provocative title

\- Post on aggregators

\- Collect comments and go back to step 1

~~~
7952
It is worrying how many comments a bad article can attract merely telling
people how bad the article is. Presumably comment count is used as a measure
of quality, even if the comments are negative?

~~~
tangue
This article is emblematic of what I would call "dark patterns of online
journalism". It's not the first time (search "Apple's poisonous Touch silently
kills the GNOMEs of Linux Forest" for the latest example ), and it's not just
a bad article. There is no added value in this article, it's a deliberate
attempt to manipulate people's gut feelings, with a cost effective strategy in
order to increase pageviews, and it needs to be denounced.

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beothorn
Easily accessible gpl code leads to bad IT professionals just like cheap
bricks lead to badly build houses. We need to raise brick prices or else
anyone can built their poor quality houses.

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oneandoneis2
I read it.. I still don't actually see any argument that the GPL is causing a
problem?

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zimbatm
The "Linus doesn't scale" bit is an old (2002) issue that was solved when they
switched development process.

It looks like they just took negative things about Linux/GPL and thrown them
together. There's no meat.

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rwmj
Yeah, Linux is just dying. Absolutely no one uses it any more. Android doesn't
exist. Ignorance is strength.

~~~
sigzero
To be fair...Android is not desktop linux.

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CookWithMe
Is this the follow up to "Computer Generated Math Paper makes it into Peer
Reviewed Journal"? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4676837>

The whole article contradicts itself. Just start with the title: "The GPL
self-destruct mechanism" vs. "This is why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been
declared the licence "viral"." A spreading virus that does harm by... killing
itself?

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brudgers
Conventional narratives about Darwinian competition among OS's in the run up
to Black Tuesday always fail to mention the "Neanderthal" in the room - Lisp
machines. Conceived before the Win-Tel revolution allowed plebeians to compute
and developed in the military industrial culture of secrets around Boston,
Lisp machines contained the "evils" which caused Stallman to act.

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cshenk
TL;DR: ""

