From the Editor
June 1st, 2002 by Richard Vernon in
We recently ran a short humor piece on the Linux Journal web site that asked the question “Are you a Linux waif?” (/article/5868). The article was submitted by a woman who has been married to a “Linux man” for 13 years. She said she'd understand if we didn't want to run it because it might be funny only to her and her husband.
Whether people found it funny I don't know, but for a lot of people it struck close to home and turned out to be one of the most commented articles on the site, with people writing in to share their own Linux waif stories. The level of raving fanaticism, er, I mean enthusiastic devotion, ignited a spark of inspiration in our free-beer-numbed minds. We came up with an idea that will provide the staff of Linux Journal with some free entertainment, while giving our readers an opportunity to win a truly fabulous prize.
Marc Merlin, Linux Enthusiast Extraordinaire
In the spirit of the old MTV show Fanatic, we will be hosting a contest to discover the most dedicated (rabid) Linux devotee (fanatic). If you can prove to us that you are the superlative Linux zealot, you will win complimentary passage on the Linux Lunacy 2002 Caribbean cruise and a chance to meet some of the most renowned people in the Linux and Open Source communities, including Linus Torvalds, Ted Ts'o and Guido van Rossum. This year's ports of call include Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Holland-America's private Caribbean island, Half Moon Cay.
To enter, simply submit some kind of physical evidence of your Linux ardor to
Linux Journal Fanatic ContestPO Box 55549Seattle, WA 98155-0549
Submissions must be received by July 5, 2002. The grand prize winner and two runners-up will be announced in the September issue of Linux Journal. The runners-up will also receive a most excellent prize.
Example forms of submission are essay, film, photographs or any combination thereof. For instance, a short film of you wearing your penguin pajamas to a five-star restaurant while trying to show the waiter how to hack the restaurant's point-of-sale system (running embedded Linux) to keep a more “accurate” account of tips would probably make you a major contender.
We look forward to receiving your entries. Good luck!
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Please share your thoughts RE Linux & the BSDs
On May 25th, 2002 Romulus007 (not verified) says:
Greetings from Toronto, Canada everyone!
I submitted a post earlier titled No disrespect to Linux, but what about the BSDs?? and felt that this forum might give me the answers I'm looking for.
Please note that I'm a big evangelist of Linux-Mandrake and Suse in the Linux realm! It's just that I can't understand how come the BSDs are not attracting the big corporate names like HP, IBM, Compaq, Oracle, Sybase, Borland et al. Is this the proverbial catch-22 scenario meaning "no apps, no funding" and "no funding, no apps"? But, going further, didn't Linux start off with nothing too? Moreover, is the backbone of the Internet not based on BSD? And did the great Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems) not implement the now famous TCP/IP stack that we all take for granted every day - on BSD first?
We all know of the comparisons between Apache on Linux and FreeBSD (just ask Yahoo or Walnut Creek). Would logic not dictate that DB-2, Oracle-9i or Sybase ASE would fare just as well on a BSD platform too? Also, imagine the implications of a native Delphi-Kylix port? After all, IBM routinely boasts of their billion dollar investment in the Linux market. Can you imagine just a quarter of that allocated to the BSDs?? Heck, I can!!
I eagerly await your replies!
Logically yours,
Romulus007
==========
Re: Please share your thoughts RE Linux & the BSDs
On May 27th, 2002 Anonymous says:
The FreeBSD software is excellent and well worth using. The only 'problem' with it is that it can be (and often is) co-opted by companies with proprietary interests, and the licensing doesn't protect the commons in the way the GPL does.
A company that contributes to Linux gets to _keep_ the advantages they create. A company that contributes to BSD may see their software used by a competitior to their own disadvantage in a product that has since become the "Intellectual Property" of the competitor.
Re: Please share your thoughts RE Linux & the BSDs
On May 28th, 2002 Romulus007 (not verified) says:
"A company that contributes to Linux gets to _keep_ the advantages they create. A company that contributes to BSD may see their software used by a competitior to their own disadvantage in a product that has since become the "Intellectual Property" of the competitor."
But what's to stop company XYZ from taking code from a GPL project, incorporating it into their's and recompiling all source files for a "new" or "similar" project or product by creating a binary EXE only to be distributed to their customes?
Re: Please share your thoughts RE Linux & the BSDs
On May 29th, 2002 Anonymous says:
Really now, go READ the GPL ...... if you use code from any GPL project, you are required to publish the original code + any changes made (clearly delineated) along with any binary you produce. It is the very nature of the license that protects the commons from the situation you mention.
Nominations for Committed and Devoced are Open... Source
On May 24th, 2002 Tree (not verified) says:
I'd never make the cut but I know some folks who deserve lots of rewards for their untiring efforts on behalf of the GNULinux community. Lighter side? OK. Maybe we can find some appropriate pictures and other evidence that they definitely do have fun while helping out lots of folks over a wide area.
I will nominate a member of the NoVALUG. Several of them spent hundreds of hours bringing Free Software to FOSE. That alone merits a nomination. More personally, those same members helped me get started, weaning me from M$, showing me the way. My biggest problem? Picking just one of that fine group to nominate.
So who helped you? It's time to start building that package to mail in. If your personal guru wins, think how great it'll feel. None of 'em will take a dime for all that day-to-day help.
And if their antics in support of GNULinux aren't wacky enough to win this one, maybe the next cruise give-away will be for one of the many who provide free tech' support to newbies or who spread the word or who run the install fests or....
May be a moot point
On May 22nd, 2002 Anonymous says:
I told my wife about the cruise ticket promotion
and asked her what, in her opinion, would be a
winning entry, and she told me that this was a
prize that probably would go unclaimed...
true Linux fanatics will already *have* tickets
to the cruise!!
What sort of a prize if that?
On May 21st, 2002 Anonymous says:
That Caribbean cruise sounds kinda nice, but seems like a strange prize for a group of people known for being rather nocturnal. Somehow I don't think there'll be a lot of sun-baking being done. I'm sure the nights would be nice though.
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 20th, 2002 Anonymous says:
I would be careful using the word "fanatic".
To quote Victor Klemper's Lingua Tertii Imperii:
"Fanatique und fanatisme sind Woerter, die von den franzoesischen Aufklaerern durchweg im aeussersten Tadelssinn, und dies aus doppeltem Grund, angewandt werden. Urspruenglich - die Wurzel iiegt in fanum, dem Heiligtum, dem Tempel - ist ein Fanatiker ein in relgioeser Verzueckung, in ekstatischen Krampfzustaenden befindlicher Mensch."
QED,
Toon Moene, GNU Fortran Maintainer.
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 20th, 2002 Anonymous says:
You fortran people are odd. ;-)
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 20th, 2002 Anonymous says:
END
Thank you for proving his point...
On May 21st, 2002 Anonymous says:
That was funny...
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 20th, 2002 Anonymous says:
"Fanatique und fanatisme sind W
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 21st, 2002 Anonymous says:
To be short: You can use a dictionary instead of guessing.
You can be fanatic about a team and kill "in the name" of it, about political ideas, racists ideologies and finally whatever that differentiates you from another human being.
Being fanatic about Linux is a very ugly word, I think the same, too.
Excuse my English.
Re: Committed to Linux or Just Devoted?
On May 25th, 2002 Anonymous says:
To be short: You can use a dictionary instead of guessing.
It's hard to understand even if german is the native language.
Excuse my English.
My one, too ;-) The very short translation may not fit.
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