Monday, April 17, 2006

Hackers give proprietary programmers run for their money

The Jakarta Post - The Journal of Indonesia Today: "It started innocently enough. A man wanted his company to replace his aging office computer with the new Intel-based Apple MacBook Pro, telling his boss that he could boot Windows XP on it.
Problem is, at that time, you couldn't. There was no software, method or boot loader that would allow Mac users to run Microsoft's operating system on the cool, sleek Apple hardware.
Putting money where his mouth is, Colin Nederkoorn put up US$100, set up a website (www.onmac.net), urged others to donate money, and launched an open-source software coding contest.
Ever since its inception in late January to the award of the prize in mid-March, over $13,000 was raised. Giving a new meaning to Internet advertising, the list of all donors, both individuals and corporate, was published on the web, some including links to their blogs or company websites. "

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