On Sat, 19 Jul 1997, Mismatched NFS IDs wrote:
I think that depends on what people start adopting. If you want "geodesic" software, use Linux. Pieces are there from every continent, and all any business needs to do to have a driver and applications written for any hardware is to release the spec. It is flexible and upgradable and 'out of control', and is developed on the internet. Interestingly enough, the only stego-crypto "device" I know of is the linux loop device.
Like a geodesic network, it naturally routes around obstructions or any attempts to stop it. This is a story I did for Wired News today about a possible attempt at stopping free software in the most obvious manner -- close the hardware. Notice the outcome. [1][USEMAP] [INLINE] [2][USEMAP] [3][USEMAP] [INLINE] _______________ ______________ [4][LINK] [INLINE] [5][LINK] _Consortium Segregates the Bus_ _by [6]Michael Stutz _ 3:07pm 21.Jul.97.PDT A coming improvement to the PC architecture promises to dramatically enhance throughput for high-end servers, while at the same time only granting a select few the right to create software for it. Some programmers say this is a move by corporate giants like Microsoft to enforce a prohibition on the growing free software movement, and have begun to fight it. Intelligent Input/Output, or I20, is the technical specification for the next breed of high-end PC hardware devices invented by Intel and developed by the [7]I2O SIG, an industry consortium. Conforming hardware will help relieve I/O-intensive enterprise applications, such as client/server networking and videoconferencing, by taking the I/O load from the CPU, said consortium spokesman Michael LoBue. "It 'tweaks' the basic architecture by offloading I/O processing from the CPU to a dedicated I/O processor," he said. This built-in processor is part of an intelligent I/O subsystem that would even allow I2O devices to communicate with each other - for example, a network card could make a request directly to a disk controller - without intervention by the CPU or operating system. Eventually, OEMs such as H-P and Dell may release high-end systems conforming with I2O, some before the calendar year's end. "We feel that the technology is promising," said Patrick Franklin, Microsoft's I2O SIG rep, who confirmed that its NT 5 operating system will begin to implement I2O compatibility while noting that "there's the risk that I2O performance will not justify the cost." But another issue has begun to raise a stink with programmers - the ability to write and share software for I2O-enabled hardware devices is controlled by the Microsoft-dominated SIG. "It looks as if the I2O SIG agreements are deliberately written to exclude free software," said Bruce Perens, chairman of [8]Software in the Public Interest, a nonprofit organization formed to support Debian GNU/Linux, a free Linux operating system package. "It's my opinion that this was a very deliberate decision on the part of the I2O consortium, and specifically on the part of their sponsors Microsoft and Novell." Free software - software whose source code is shared throughout the Net community - has taken a good portion of the high-powered server market that I2O targets, said Perens. "[For] [9]Web servers, file servers, and big-ticket systems, people have dumped high-priced commercial server packages in favor of free software." Because software development for I2O peripherals is forbidden for nonmembers, the US$5,000 yearly membership dues will put individuals and small organizations out of the game. Members themselves are not permitted to disclose their source code, and Microsoft has veto power to drop any organization from the SIG. This makes a grim scenario for independent programmers. The usual reason for keeping a hardware system closed - to prevent cloning of the device - does not apply in this case, as all I2O hardware vendors have access to the same documentation. "Five thousand dollars is assurance that the little guys, people like [10]Linus Torvalds [the original author of Linux] who might work for a college or program at home on hardware they purchased with their own money, will be locked out," Perens said. But, says LoBue, "I try to tell these people that one, this isn't a conspiracy and two, the founders are not stupid, ignorant people unaware of a free approach to licensing - so grow up, get over it. Either join or wait until such time as they feel that it doesn't need to be licensed. Boy, they're sure having a lot of fun on their soapbox lecturing about how ruin and damnation will happen because there are 'proprietary specs.' I would claim that I2O is _not_ a proprietary spec - _anybody_ is free to join the SIG." Proprietary specs have surfaced many times throughout PC history; the outcomes have almost never been good. The MicroChannel Architecture bus was IBM's one-time attempt to keep the PC bus its own. It didn't work. "MCA was doomed from the start," said Microsoft's Franklin, citing the difficulties in getting a license from the IBM bureaucracy as a prime catalyst for its demise. Similarly, it may prove tough to impossible to keep determined hackers from programming their own hardware: Some have even now routed around the I2O membership requirements, informing Wired News that the secret document describing I2O in its current revision was [11]openly available from the I2O SIG's own site. _Related Wired Links:_ [INLINE] _[12]Penguin Plaque Honors Linux Creator 9.Jul.97_ [13][LINK] [14][USEMAP] [15]Feedback: Let us know how we're doing. [16]Tips: Have a story or tip for Wired News? Send it. [17]Copyright © 1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc. and affiliated companies. All rights reserved. [18][USEMAP] [INLINE] [INLINE] [19]PSINet. Sign up now and get $200 of free Internet faxing. [20]Consortium Segregates the Bus [INLINE] _TECHNOLOGY_ _Today's Headlines_ _[21]Email Spy Lurks in Corporate Future [22]Digital Maps Help You Take a High-Tech Hike __[23]Consortium Segregates the Bus [24]Net Cannot Work by Man Alone [25]Launch Entrepreneurs Bet Down Under Goes Over [26]Sun's Adventures in the Third Dimension __[27]Tools: Internet Explorer 4.0 Preview 2 [28]Street Cred: The Interface Hackers [29]Geek Talk: VBScript _[30]PSINet. Sign up now and get $200 of free Internet faxing. References 1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html#masthead.map 2. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html#nav1.map 3. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html#nav2.map 4. http://www.wired.com/wired/ 5. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology 6. mailto:stutz@dsl.org 7. http://www.i2osig.org/ 8. http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html 9. http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Changes/ALL/ 10. http://www.forwiss.uni-passau.de/forwiss/archive/linux/personen/interview.ht... 11. ftp://ftp.i2osig.org/ver1-5.pdf 12. http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/1763.html 13. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology 14. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html#navstrip.map 15. mailto:news_feedback@wired.com 16. mailto:tips@wired.com 17. http://www.wired.com/wired/full.copyright.html 18. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html#nav3.map 19. http://www.wired.com/cgi-bin/nredirect/zMN5zNoNlV+G@http://www.psi.net/banne... 20. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html 21. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5315.html 22. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5313.html 23. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5343.html 24. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5321.html 25. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5304.html 26. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5287.html 27. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5337.html 28. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5272.html 29. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5266.html 30. http://www.wired.com/cgi-bin/nredirect/zMN5zNoNlV+G@http://www.psi.net/banne...