Jesse 1 Robinson wrote:
This discussion has not quite devolved into a full-fledged snarkfest,
As Snarker in Chief, I feel obliged to reply and want to say I Feel Your Pain :)
but I feel somewhat wounded by an earlier post dismissing us z-whiners for
having lost our lust for digital adventure. Here is what we are: grownups
working for companies large or small that are motivated by their own long-term
interests.
And capable of working diligently against their own interests with a flair and
a passion for years at a time.
It takes only one software-piracy lawsuit to devour far more than our own
contribution to the bottom line. We have to live by rules that may or may not
be intended to protect us. The penalty for violating corporate policy can be
severe in the extreme.
Using without altering or redistributing open source licensed under standard licenses (GNU/BSD-2/Apache/IBM Common, etc)
is never software piracy.
Downloading a compiled "free" piece of software from random vendors is legally dicey. Installing an RPM on z/Linux is
not at all dicey.
What we are not: sophomores hunched over a personal computer in our parents'
basement, where we're free to do whatever we want as long we don't get grounded
for missing curfew.
If Mr/Ms Manager wants these creaking, aging software metaphors to keep running in the 21st century, Mr/Ms Manager
deuced well
better embrace a fluid Open Source Software culture. It's not just me telling you this: IBM has been gently trying to
wean the Glass House
from the idea that vendors and/or IBM will meet their every need. Big, blue, corporate IBM has been steering you for
about 20 years towards
Open Source Software. Because Offerings are being "stabilized" and Staff are
being Reduced. Mene, mene, tekel upharsin :)
If the gang were using z/Linux regularly and had achieved familiarity, this whole teapot tempest could never have
arisen. Get to know that weird LPAR you keep around.
It may be true that historically we had a lot more latitude than we do today.
"The commander in the field is not bound by the whims of the sovereign." Sun
Dze, _Art of War_
, but then is not now. And BTW Dilbert is real. Batman is imaginary. Just look
around your office to see the difference.
My basement is my office and is largely imaginary. VPNs provide what reality
there is!
--
Jack J. Woehr # Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of
www.well.com/~jax # thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe
www.softwoehr.com # with a fine understanding of human fallibility. - Carl Sagan
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