[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Will Monolithic Apps Dominate?
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:[email protected]
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.html
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:[email protected]
16. mailto:[email protected]
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/bannerads3/hotwired@news@topstories@def@psinet@psinet/greenpsinet125@
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/bannerads3/hotwired@news@topstories@def@psinet@psinet/greenpsinet125@