「我们赶上了自由软件运动的尾巴 」讀後感

拜讀我们赶上了自由软件运动的尾巴後，個人有些想法，野人獻曝一下。粗體為原文摘錄，斜體是個人意見。

自由软件运动: 其实目的已经达成
如果微軟和Google把所有產品「自由化」，那才算是革命成功吧。否則同志仍需努力。

GPL: 目的还是手段？
對FSF來說，兩者都是。對於其他要保證自己的代碼不被閉源吞掉，那是手段。

在 GNU/Linux最大的用途还是在企业应用领域, 而在GPL在这个领域实在是很难推广。在这个领域里，尽管大家的协议都尽量做到与GPL兼容, 但采用GPL的少之又少, 我看到的只有 openjdk, mysql 这两个采用的是 GPL with linking exception, 其实加上 linking exception 后，这个协议就跟 LGPL 类似了(甚至更宽松)。
他是Debian/Ubuntu package maintainer， 應該有聽過 Evolution和 glibc，（我應該不用提Kernel和bash吧），不過要是作如此的「平衡報導」，估計文氣會弱很多。其實「企業應用」是個很籠統的概念，並不單單只有開發閉源軟體才算。一堆公司行號都是跑Linux也肯定會跑 Kernel, 怎麼說GPL不能用在上面? 真要說用GPL無法推廣，那你我應該連聽都沒聽過Linux。

浪潮已经转移
話題已經轉移。:-P 或者說概念已經被偷換。誰也不會只為推廣自由軟體而寫軟體（好吧，RMS可能是個例外），而是為了改善生活，改善工作流程來寫軟體。自由軟體不僅不會限制那些軟體的發展，反而因為自由而能讓更多的人參與。

一言以蔽之，真正心靈比較高尚的人才能用BSD之類的permessive license：像是我等一看到自己的成果被人閉源賣錢就恨的牙癢癢的還是乖乖用 GPL吧。

Firefox Speeddial-like plugins: FastDial and SpeedDial

One Opera feature I like is speed dial. It’s built-in, able to customize the row and column numbers, and can sync among computers. I kind of wondering why other browsers haven’t copy it, at least not in correct way.

Google Chrome does have similar feature, but it only show site you frequently visit and cannot change the number of the thumbnail, nor do they have an very intuitive way to set it as home page. Safari also have this feature, but the method of adding the speed dial items is so weird that I still cannot figure out how (who said Apple has the best user interface?).

Nevertheless, Opera does give me a hard time nowadays, the most deadly one is lack of support of synergy. If I see something interesting in computer A and want to copy to opera in computer B, I have to do following:

1. Copy from Opera of computer A
2. Paste to gedit of computer A
3. Copy again from gedit of computer A
4. Paste to gedit of computer B
5. Copy again from gedit of computer B
6. Paste to opera of computer B

See why I am frustrated?

That’s why I start investigating firefox’s counterpart: SpeedDial and FastDial. They both have the ability to show the dial, and able to adjust the number of rows and columns. When comparing between these two:

Briefly speaking:
SpeedDial:

• Pro:
  • Nicer UI
  • Can define groups, each group has
  • Many more to customize, like refresh frequency in minutes, hour, day
  • It even has a weather dial!
• Con:
  • Does not sync with xmark

FastDial on the other hand, has poorer UI, less customable than SpeedDial…
but can sync with xmark, as it actually posts as a folder in bookmark.

Currently I choose FastDial, as I have four working computers at the moment. But if you don’t need to sync, SpeedDial is a better choice.

Nevertheless, FastDial is not yet mature. For example, position of dial is not remembered, so when importing for a new computer, the dial item is arranged by the date you add the bookmark, not the order in source computer.

zsh: sequence of options matter.

I have been suggested that zsh is the ultimate shell that is ever needed. So I gave it a shot for months. At first, I was quite impressed of it’s completion on make targets, until I encountered two commands: rpm and yum, which were painfully slow.

I was looking for the script/hack/template that can speed up the rpm completion, but no prevail. I also wonder why nobody bother to fix it.

Today, I was going to give up zsh and turn to bash+ bash-completion, as that combination actually fit surprising good to my working style (but I still miss tcsh-like completion). Suddenly, I realize that sequence of options might be the key. So I try to use

rpm -ivh

instead of

rpm -hiv

which I always use.

And ta-da, it works.

Nouveau 3D works on my mini311.

I went tired on keep the proprietary nvidia driver up-to-date.
A few days ago, I found Testcase_nouveau_glx.

I tried it with my HP-mini311 with on-board Nvidia ION LE (the sticker says it’s ION though). According to my test, it runs good with compiz, but occasionally it messes the scroll bars.

Hmm, maybe it’s time to upgrade my desktop to F13 and see whether the 3D still works when screen is rotated.