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Message no. 1
From: maxnoel_fr@*****.fr (Max Noel)
Subject: Software Crusades (and a little bit of OSS)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 20:57:09 +0100
Le 20 févr. 2004, à 20:22, Hexren a écrit :

> G> The handy manpage said Q, which I tried without effect... Probably
> because
> G> I'd been typing in random letters first to see if it was actually
> doing
> G> something :)
>
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> if it is like vi first change into command mode propably by hitting
> the ESC key followed by a ":" thats at least what it is on my sys ;)

According to my man pages, the proper procedure to exit ed is to hit
Esc a couple of times to make sure you're in command mode, then Enter
(a question mark should appear), q, enter.
Anyway, line-oriented text editors don't have a reason to be used
anymore now that teletypes are dead. I suppose the only reason ed still
exists is that ed and vi are two interfaces to the same program... vi
is by far easier to use (not to mention more powerful).

As for software wars in the 2060s, they must still be around, yes. I
doubt there is only one OS, one text editor, one programming IDE, one
programming language, etc. And if two good enough pieces of software
exist that do the same thing (like emacs and vi for text editing --
speaking of which I'm probably the only guy in the world who uses both
:p ), you can be sure in time both will have their zealots.

By the way, that reminds me... In all the sourcebooks I've read, there
is no mention anywhere of the open source movement. While I understand
it's just plain *bad* from a game balance point of view to allow the
decker to have all his progs for free, I can't imagine how OSS could
possibly have died by 2060. Thus, it must still be around. Where do you
guys think it is?

-- Wild_Cat
maxnoel_fr@*****.fr -- ICQ #85274019
"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting
and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a
perfect, immortal machine?"
Message no. 2
From: adamj@*********.com (Adam Jury)
Subject: Software Crusades (and a little bit of OSS)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 17:29:44 -0500
At 14:57 2/20/2004, Max Noel wrote:

> By the way, that reminds me... In all the sourcebooks I've read, there
>is no mention anywhere of the open source movement. While I understand
>it's just plain *bad* from a game balance point of view to allow the
>decker to have all his progs for free, I can't imagine how OSS could
>possibly have died by 2060. Thus, it must still be around. Where do you
>guys think it is?

I'd suspect that the main reason OSS doesn't appear in Shadowrun is due to
the age of the game; in 1989 nobody except those involved with OSS knew
what it was, and even when SR3 and Matrix were being produced in 1998, Open
Source still wasn't that big from the mainstream perspective.

I certainly think that there would be OSS and code-sharing in the Sixth
World, but I also look at it this way: if I write a utility that can kill
people dead, I probably don't want other people getting ahold of it while
it's still anywhere near SOTA. ;-)

Best,
Adam
--
| Editor, The Shadowrun Supplemental: http://tss.dumpshock.com |
| adamj@*********.com | http://www.talkinabout.com | UIN: 2350330 |
Message no. 3
From: maxnoel_fr@*****.fr (Max Noel)
Subject: Software Crusades (and a little bit of OSS)
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 00:40:07 +0100
Adam Jury wrote:

> I certainly think that there would be OSS and code-sharing in the
> Sixth World, but I also look at it this way: if I write a utility that
> can kill people dead, I probably don't want other people getting ahold
> of it while it's still anywhere near SOTA. ;-)

True, but what if on the other hand I write an utility that makes a
persona impossible to crash?

-- Wild_Cat
maxnoel_fr@*****.fr -- ICQ #85274019
"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting
and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a
perfect, immortal machine?"
Message no. 4
From: elventear@***********.net.pe (Pepe Barbe)
Subject: Software Crusades (and a little bit of OSS)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:17:22 -0500
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 17:29:44 -0500, Adam Jury <adamj@*********.com> wrote:

> I certainly think that there would be OSS and code-sharing in the Sixth
> World, but I also look at it this way: if I write a utility that can
> kill people dead, I probably don't want other people getting ahold of it
> while it's still anywhere near SOTA. ;-)

I don't beleive that decking software would be produced under the OSS
model for many reasons. First of it must be illegal to produce such
software, so it would be hard to establish big projects, like the Linux
Kernel project is, as it would easily draw a lot of attention from the
policing entities of the Matrix. These projects would have to be kept
small and undercover lacking the benefit of feedback, and code reuse that
the OSS has.

Second, I don't beleive that your average programmer (The one who codes
useful apps in VirtualBasic), would have the knowhow to manipulate sim
signal to a point where they make cause damage or kill someone. This is
information is not open to the public as it is, IMHO, considered military
grade technology, just like the GPS algorithm is known only to its
researchers and the american army.

Pepe
Message no. 5
From: gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: Software Crusades (and a little bit of OSS)
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 11:08:33 +0100
According to Max Noel, on Saturday 21 February 2004 00:40 the word on the
street was...

> True, but what if on the other hand I write an utility that makes a
> persona impossible to crash?

I'm still not sure you'd want to share it, seeing as how it will also make
it impossible for _you_ to crash corp deckers trying to prevent you from
messing with their system...

--
Gurth@******.nl - Stone Age: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Could it be more truth than fable?
-> Probably NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

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