> Gentlemen, > I just saw a comment by the 'owner' of Ubuntu. > > "Ubuntu does not have a positive cash flow." > "He doesn't mind supporting it for the next three to five years." > > Does this mean Ubuntu will not be free in five years?
I doubt Ubuntu will ever be non-free. That is it's most fundamental belief. However, if Mark Shuttleworth stops sponsoring Ubuntu in 5 years, it will turn into a purely open source project with a much slower pace, and probably lots less commercial support (that we don't use at the moment anyway). But things like free shipping CDs won't be around anymore. I still hope it won't come to that. > Maybe EMC should develop a kernel of its own? :) (I am not a kernel > developer - my programming skills are G code - for me C is the third > letter of the English alphabet) I have seen wishes expressed for a > tiny kernel to run just EMC. The kernel itself is not something Ubuntu develops, even though they have some patches of their own which they drag along. Any vanilla kernel (available from www.kernel.org) will make emc2 work (once it's been patched with a proper RTAI patch). So we depend on the linux kernel (_VERY_ unlikely to disappear) and RTAI (if RTAI goes away, there are still alternatives to be investigated: Xenomai, -rt kernels for machines without software stepping, etc). > Aren't the EMC splits - EMC, EMC2, Mach and Smithy? Are there > others? Are there current problems with this? There are at least 2 more I know about: bdi4emc - which was a split by Paul Corner that combines some of the EMC parts with some similar things to emc2 (no RCSLIB, but the smaller/more reduced libnml; runs on a 2.6 kernel, etc). tuxcnc - another split which had some ambitious goals (rewrite the whole codebase, clean interfaces, etc). I see absolutely no problems with this. The Mach split isn't quite an emc split, as they only used the RS274NGC interpreter in some variant from years ago, nothing else from emc afaik. In open-source forks (as they are usually called) aren't a bad thing. People with different goals want to focus on different things, the community is the one that benefits as it has more to chose from. > Five years is a LONG time in the computer world. We have no idea > what things will look like then. Agreed. But even if things change radically, and the darkest ideas come true, we can still use the PCs + emc2 from today ;) > If we just focus on the development of EMC2 and keep this flowing > at the speed it is now we will not have to worry about any other > group. EMC2 will catch and pass even the commercial controls is a very > short time. That's nice of you to say, hopefully we'll get there. > I also share some of Jim's concern for support. My personal answer > is to learn/do as much as I can. I can then support my needs. I have > had opportunities for commercial projects. Maybe in the future I will > feel capable. As for Jim's comment about my shop organization being > supported by many individuals I will concede that is the case. I will > say there is no job in my organization that I cannot do. I will admit > there are a FEW :( areas of EMC2 I do not have complete grasp of. :) I > am working to reduce the fog. I started working with EMC close to 5 years ago, then I spent more than 4 years working on and with the sourcecode, and I still can say there are some areas I don't fully know yet (nor that I ever will). But that's ok, given the nice people around the project, I (personally again) wouldn't have any issues in selling machines with emc2 on them. (maybe one day I still might, that was my original intention: build some hexapod style plasma cutting machines). Regards, Alex ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
