2B Perfectly Honest

Brief Summary:


Frank and Josh's business collapsed, Frank went back to live with his parents but dressed perfectly out everyday to look for other chances to success.


He went to his friend, a erratic man, to play chess and ask advices. Frank has a date with a witch, and lately meet a venture capitalist, also a erratic man.


Finally, he came up with an idea, WebBoards, and persuaded Josh to be his business partner again. With rejections continued, Frank went to his father to borrow money, which made him shameful.


At last the webboards started to made money for them.









venture capitalist: a businessman who Frank meet in a sauna room. He is s geezer
business angel: Frank's new boss, Peter. Frank doubted Peter was using his company to do money laundering.
start up:Sorry, no idea.
webboard: Frank's idea, showing ads when people are viewing websites, like the ad board on the highway.

Antitrust

Brief Summary:
Milo Hoffman, a new employee of NURV found out the CEO of NURV, Gary Winston was taking any means to kill his competetors, including Milo's best friend, Teddy, who was worked with him "at their new software development company dedicated to preserving creative integrity and information exchange" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitrust_(film) before Milo was hired by Gary Winston to develop the new product "Synapse".
Teddy was supported Open Source, while Gary is a monopolizer.
At last Milo used the Synapse to broadcast Gary's crime and Gary was arrested by FBI.
Milo went back to his friends and their company, publicize the source code for SYNAPSE.



Q: Who do you think the bad guy in the movie is representing?
A: Bill Gates.
Common: Microsoft and NURV are monopolising the computer market.
The working environment of Microsoft and NURV are just alike.
Microsoft was accused according to the Antitrust Law in 2001, when the movie was published.
They look the same....... the hair, the glasses.

Q: What is open source? How is it different from commercial software and freeware?
A:
Open Source: A method and philosophy for software licensing and distribution designed to encourage use and improvement of software written by volunteers by ensuring that anyone can copy the source code and modify it freely. (http://www.wordiq.com/define/Open_source)

Commercial software is used only when the user is pay for it. Sometimes there are some days of free using, called probation period.

Freeware:is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freeware ) Freeware is often made available in a binary-only, proprietary form, thus making it distinct from free software (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html) (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Freeware). Proprietary freeware allows authors to contribute something for the benefit of the community, while at the same time allowing them to retain control of the source code, future direction of development and preserve its business potential. Freeware is different from shareware, where the user is obliged to pay (e.g. after some trial period or for additional functionality). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware)


Q: What is the open source business model(how can open source developers make money)?
A:There are a number of commonly recognized barriers to the adoption of open source software by enterprises. These barriers include the perception that open source licenses are viral, lack of formal support and training, the velocity of change, and a lack of a long term roadmap. The majority of these barriers are risk-related. From the other side, not all proprietary projects disclose exact future plans, not all open source licenses are equally viral and many serious OSS projects (especially operating systems) actually make money from paid support and documentation.
Many business models exist around open source software to provide a 'whole product' to help reduce these risks. The 'whole product' typically includes support, commercial licenses, professional services, training, certification, partner programs, references and use cases. These business models range from 'services only' organizations that do not participate in the development of the software to models where the majority of the software is created by full-time committers that are employed by a central organization. These business models have come into existence recently and their operation is not commonly understood. One model that has been developed to explain this is the Bee Keeper Model
A commonly employed Business Strategy of Commercial Open Source Software Firms is the Dual-License Strategy, as demonstrated by MySQL, Alfresco, and others. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source#Business_models)

The Open Source Definition By: Bruce Perens

(Version 1.0)

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of an open-source program must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution The license may not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license may not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of downloading the source code, without charge, via the Internet. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code. The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups. The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License. The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties. 8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product. The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Contaminate Other Software. The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. Example Licenses. The GNU GPL, BSD, X Consortium, and Artistic licenses are examples of licenses that we consider conformant to the Open Source Definition. So is the MPL.
(http://perens.com/OSD.html)

Q: Do you think open source can be a threat to commercial software or do you think it will be stolen from as shown in the movie?
A: Yes, i agree with that. But nowadays, some commercial software like windows are more compatible than some open source.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

(Click the picture to see it bigger)

Brief summary:

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple and produced the Apple I.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and sold the licence of using "DOS" to IBM then bought an operating system from a failing company and called it DOS.

IBM and Apple were competed with each other.

Apple team was invited by Xerox PARC to view their technology in exchange for Apple shares. Then Apple developed the Macintosh after the Lisa, based on the GUI of Xerox PARC.

Bill gained Steve's trust to develop software on the Macintosh and learn how the GUI works in the Macintosh. Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Windows which was just like the operating interface of the Macintosh.

Steve Jobs was fired by Apple. He returned to Apple at 1997 and Microsoft owns part of Apple computer.

Strengths of Apple and Microsoft products:

Apple: more human, more personal for users, espacially for the people who don't know much about computer.

It's also a best choice for designers and artists.

Microsoft: Windows is more compatible with almost other software on PCs than Apple does.

The standard system of PCs are almost based on Windows.

IBM mistakes:

1. They didn't see that software will be more important than hardware in the future of computer industry.

So IBM only bought the licence of using DOS but not the property of it. In that case, Microsoft can sell DOS to others.

2. Just as Bill said, IBM were too proud of themselves that they believed themselves were successful, who would not be failed.

Q:What is IBM doing today?

A:
Products:
Software
Systems, servers and storage
Small business products
Medium business products (Hardware, Software)
Workstations
Certified used PCs & systems
Upgrades & accessories
More products (Lenovo ThinkPads, Lenovo ThinkCentres, Point of sale, Semiconductors ,SOA appliances, InfoPrint Solutions Company)

Services:
Business consulting
IT services
ServicePacs
Training

(http://www.ibm.com/us/en/)

Q:Do you believe Bill Gates stole everything from Apple?

A:No, I don't think so. Bill copied the GUI of the Macintosh and developed Windows by themselves. Though they were just alike with each other. Bill put it in an different way. So he stole something but not everything.