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Beachhead - Sinking of the USS Proprietary

Issue 147

From Issue #147
July 2006

Jun 13, 2006  By Jon “maddog” Hall
 in
There isn't much to salvage from the sunken hulls of proprietary design.
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tiny nit to pick

misc-nazi's picture
Submitted by misc-nazi (not verified) on Thu, 06/15/2006 - 18:42.

s/flounder/founder/

thanks.....

"USS" or "SS"?

Captain Blood's picture
Submitted by Captain Blood (not verified) on Thu, 06/15/2006 - 15:38.

For what it is worth, "USS" (United States Ship) designates a US Navy (war) ship. "SS" (Steam Ship) designates an old-fashioned (steam-powered) commercial ship. Would you want to ship your commercial cargo on a US military vessel? I should think not-- it would be the least efficient and most expensive way to move your cargo. Modern commercial ships are not steam powered-- they are diesel (motor powered) vessels, i.e. "MV". Diesel power is far more fuel efficient, by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, naval vessels of a given tonnage have much larger crews (several hundred sailors) than commercial vessels of much bigger tonnage(as few as twenty sailors).

Re: "USS" or "SS"?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 06/16/2006 - 09:59.

Well, all those guns would preclude any "piracy" from taking place. I'm sure that Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Steve Jobs would appreciate that. :-D Besides, modern US carriers use "nukeular" power, which lasts way longer than diesel (which we know is for wimps anyway). That's why the US Navy has such a glowing personality. :-D

And, as anyone who has watched Star Trek knows, "USS" *really* stands for "United Space Ship", as in the United Federation of Planets. So there!

OK, now I'll be serious. The story, while fictional, outlines why Free Software is so important. You have the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want with it. You also have the freedom to choose whatever level of outside support, if any, that you want. Proprietary platforms don't give you that.

Diesel powered engines on

hardy's picture
Submitted by hardy (not verified) on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 23:02.

Diesel powered engines on board of commercial ships is still the main source of power. diesel generator

Small typo

Pedro's picture
Submitted by Pedro (not verified) on Wed, 06/14/2006 - 13:46.

Aldeia instead of Alideia.

USS Proprietary will never sink, it'll just get a paint job from time to time and be with us forever. USS Competition and USS Choice is what we should not allow USS Proprietary owners to control.

Cheers,
Pedro

Ummmmmm compact?

pmoses's picture
Submitted by pmoses on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 17:21.

Surely you must be speaking of the USS Compaq, not the USS Compact.

Maybe I am way off base but mistaking a sunken Compaq computer with a compact computer is about as accurate as fishing for tuna in a freshwater lake.

Compaq computers have sunk, compact computers... well compact computers are only in their infancy.

Phil

I think "USS Compact" was

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 06/16/2006 - 09:49.

I think "USS Compact" was meant to be a deliberately humorous reference to Compaq, which, remember, is itself a variant of the word "compact". Personally, I thought it was funny.

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