[Beowulf] dollars-per-teraflop : any lists like the Top500?

[Hearns, John]

> 
> RMS is an interesting guy.  He does tend to stake out one extreme on
> the
> intellectual property rights spectrum.  I've had many a stimulating(?)
> discussion with folks who advocate a form of Marxism for software:
that
> is,
> all software should be freely available to all, and magic elves/the
> state/some entity will ensure that the writers of such software will
> have a
> roof over their heads and food to eat, because it's a sharing of a
> societal
> good thing.  Sadly, even in the halls of academe such a situation
> doesn't
> really exist.  RMS knows this and has a finely nuanced way to deal
with
> it.


Jim, RMS makes a distinction between patents and copyright.

Remember that the GNU Copyleft is a copyright, used to defend free
software.
There is nothing wrong with copyrighting your work, and being paid for
it, and indeed 
making money from it.

It is the patents which lead to the absurdities of companies scrambling
for patents for
commonsense techniques - in order to build up that portfolio to brandish
at other companies.


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