[LUAU] interesting article on Mark Spencer/Digium

Jim Thompson jim at netgate.com
Fri Jun 10 13:18:46 PDT 2005


On Jun 10, 2005, at 10:04 AM, Hawaii Linux Institute wrote:

> Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>
>> http://news.com.com/Is+the+telephone+industry+ready+for+open 
>> +source/2008-1082_3-5737703.html
>>
>
>
> Perhaps you could enlighten us with an informed talk on Linux-based  
> PBX?

Any reason to not have Matt Darnell (sp?) come do so instead?   He  
runs an Asterix (and SER) based business here in Honolulu.

>   I imagine that a home/office-based "telephone server" may have  
> quite a bit of commercial potential.  (For example, I always hate  
> to carry a cell phone with an address book, as it may contain  
> privileged/private information, etc.)

Tens of thousands of geeks already do this.    (BTW, your lawyer  
mentality is showing.  :-)    Its nearly trivial to setup.   Does  
LUAU/HOSEF have
technical get-togethers with speakers?  (Or is that CyberPizza?  (And  
what about those of us trying to cut down on carbs?))

I brought my new linux-powered car PC to the Talk-Shop on Monday, but  
the only other people who showed up were Scott and Ted, so we talked  
about the DOE.

> About the Mac not being proprietary comment, what are you eluding  
> to?  Wayne

Darwin is about as open as it gets, save linux, freebsd, netbsd, and  
openbsd.    The source code for the tool chain, OS, most libraries  
and userland are all available under an FSF (and ODSL, as if anyone  
cares about them) approved "Free Software" license.

What you don't get source for are Aqua, the i-apps, etc.  But you can  
run X, if you want.   I find I don't, even after nearly 20 years of X  
usage.

Some media think "PowerPC" is proprietary as well.   Its less  
proprietary than Intel's processors.

Feel free to counter with the "but you can't run MacOS on open  
hardware" argument.

Desktop Linux is seriously in-trouble when folks like jwz bail.   
http://jwz.livejournal.com/494040.html

And while the upgrade to Debian's "sarge" didn't break the single  
colo box which is my last remaining Debian installation, that box had  
been
running "testing" for years.   Things don't look so good for folks  
upgrading from potatoe, however: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/ 
software/0,2000061733,39196419,00.htm

Jim





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