A Contrarian View of Open Source

Bruce Sterling's OSCON speech is now online - fun, light reading. And a reminder: the Global Civil Society design contest (which we mentioned before) is ending soon.

how long did that speech take?

[tiedyejeremy]

I can't believe people could go that long without refreshing /. or checking email.

mussolini

[sfraggle]

quote: "The result is 95% market domination by Microsoft. But that's not a market economy. That's not even capitalism. That is a state-capitalist, state-sanctioned monopoly that Mussolini would have smiled on."

Carefully using a comparison to Mussolini to avoid Godwins Law [godwinslaw.com] I see :)

Better slut than a whore

[Subcarrier]

Oh, I read it. I just didn't appreciate anyone calling Linux a slut.

Well, there are others you have to pay for...

Glad to see...

[eaeolian]

...that Sterling's consistent. None of his novels ever really get to the point, either - they just spend all their time trying to dazzle you with imagery, while he desperately tries to find a way out of the corner he's just painted himself into.

Nothing like being a Troll at a conference, though - I'm sure he was bought a beer or two by some Linux geeks that didn't realize he was cracking on them harder than he was on Gates.

preach it, brother

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

i used to work in desktop support for my university, back in my college days. after a couple of years or really trying to help people, i started testing limits. like...

student comes in: "My teacher says my engineering ID should work to get me into the general PC labs..."

me: "your teacher is on crack. NEXT!?"

after a few talking-tos by supervisors, but no real punitive damages, it just got worse. i became a jerk. still am a jerk. and i was a nice guy before working there. a really, really nice guy. the kind of nice guy that never got the girl. so i became a self-centered, stupid-people-hating jerk. and got the girls.

god, i don't miss college.

Re:Don't kill the messenger

[anonymous_wombat]

this Ad sponsored by Pepsi and Brittney Spears' bouncing boobs. Is this really what it's supposed to be like?

Hey, I don't mind the rest of it, but don't be criticizing the bouncing boobs.

typo in above comment

[commodoresloat]

There's at least a chance that he's on to something there.

You mean "There's at least a chance that he's on something there."