Ars Checks Out CyanogenMod's New Installer 143
Ars Technica runs through the pretty and simple (but Windows-only) installer that is one of the first big fruits of the newly commercialized CyanogenMod project, and finds it very worthwhile. However, and despite being far easier for ordinary mortals than the error-prone process of the old way to put on CyanogenMod, it's not perfect: reviewer Ron Amadeo ran into troubles using it on his Nexus 4, and cautions: "If CyanogenMod Inc. really wants to lower the barrier to entry, they next thing they need is a way for users to just as easily go back to the setup they had before installing CyanogenMod. Currently, the installer is a one-way street. If the user decides CyanogenMod isn't for them and wants to go back, they're stuck. Even worse, they could run into the situation I did, where CyanogenMod installs but everything is broken. I've done this enough that I know how to go back to stock, but for a novice, they would have been abandoned with a broken phone."
backup (Score:4, Insightful)
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Booting to recovery is offered in the power menu on CM, so functionality to call boot options from the live OS is also possible. Baking in current ROM backup should be trivial.
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> There's no technical reason why not;
Actually, there are a few. With an ARM Cortex, it's possible to build a phone that has encrypted ROM chips that can only be decrypted by "trusted" elements on the SoC. So, unless you can find a way to trick code running from trusted exec space into dumping the ROM chips for you, you might NOT be able to easily rip them for recovery. Whenever a new phone gets released, this is one of the first problem the early pioneers for it at XDA usually face... how to rip the car
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Still is, actually. Google's been slowly closed-sourcing a lot of Android in an attempt to thwart manufacturers using AOSP from shipping phones that work almost like, but without, Google. (Remember Android was purchased by Google because Google was worried Apple would turn the screws down on Google and iOS.). With stuff like the Kin
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Can they get phone stores to install it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Unlocked phones are becoming more available, and more carriers offer "bring-your-own-device" plans. So this should be offered as something you get installed by small phone retailers or, for more volume, bulk importers of phones and tablets. It's useful for people who don't want to be tied to Google or Apple online services.
Re:Can they get phone stores to install it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Unlocked phones are becoming more available, and more carriers offer "bring-your-own-device" plans. So this should be offered as something you get installed by small phone retailers or, for more volume, bulk importers of phones and tablets. It's useful for people who don't want to be tied to Google or Apple online services.
Unlocked bootloader is not the same as network unlocked, unfortunately.
And considering the legislative environment, it may never be the same. Thankfully, unlocked phones (both network and bootloader) are becoming quite common - thanks, in part to google (and the nexus devices). Also, it's been "a thing" in europe for some time, I hear.
Re:Can they get phone stores to install it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Unlocked bootloader is not the same as network unlocked, unfortunately.
True, although Google is slowly repackaging Android such that you can update things without waiting for the
carriers, and as soon as they complete this process by kicking the radio and screen drivers outside the kernel
you will be able to do this easier.
(It was only desperation that got them into that mess of monolithic software loads in the first place. The damage
they had to do to linux while shoehorning it into Android was mostly in destroying Linux's hard won kernel packaging.)
Right now Cyanogenmod has to tiptoe around a bit to avoid pissing off the patent trolls that own the
radio drivers when they complete replace everything else, but attempt to leave your radios intact.
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They didn't say that yet, but they have started moving many other key parts out of the monolithic kernel.
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Hmm. More of America's fascination with Europe...we loathe it, talk about how we are more free than it, a model for it, then end up copying it (badly). The mutual exclusion in my head between 'freedom' and freedom is getting larger than the propoganda can cover these days...
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As far as I'm aware, Europe (or, at least, the EU) has never had carrier locked phones. It's still common to buy them on contracts with a carrier, but if you cancelled the contract, you could immediately switch carrier with the device and continue using it. This isn't to say that carriers don't like bundling bloatware with their devices though.
That being said, it also helps that we don't have an odd mix of GSM and CDMA to contend with.
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As far as I'm aware, Europe (or, at least, the EU) has never had carrier locked phones. It's still common to buy them on contracts with a carrier, but if you cancelled the contract, you could immediately switch carrier with the device and continue using it.
Sorry to disappoint you but we generally do (or used to anyway, I haven't tried with my current phone yet). Here in the UK if you buy a pay as you go phone on the cheap from O2 you will have to take it to some dodgy shop to get it unlocked for use on Orange or Vodafone with a different sim. Luckily those dodgy shops are everywhere so it is not that hard. The carriers still used to try though last time I checked.
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Europe has always had carrier locking, but it's seldom used on PAYG and it can usually be removed by your carrier on pay-monthly for a token fee.
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I thought the target for Cyanogenmod was always those devices that have been abandoned by their manufacturers and giving them updates, be they security or functionality, in the case of the latter it usually means new APIs that newer programs take advantage of. Though with Google Play Services they are trying to eliminate this as being such a problem.
Nexus phones are supposed to be well-supported anyway - in fact aren't they the phone to get if you want updates? - so I'm not sure what the appeal of Cyanogenm
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Remember the old days where you had your Phone for years and it just worked?. Yay for forced upgrades and greed, and of course ignorance on behalf of the consumer.
The old days? That's still the case now, nobody is forcing you to upgrade, if you don't want to upgrade then don't but don't justify it by pretending you are oppressed and powerless, perhaps you just like to feel that way. Even my original iPhone still works, it doesn't receive updates and new functionality but then again neither did my Nokia 3210.
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they're the one to get if you want the latest released version quickiest after it has been released in conjunction with the corresponding nexus phone.
after that the updates can take time and after certain time stop completely.
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hey're the one to get if you want the latest released version quickiest after it has been released in conjunction with the corresponding nexus phone.
after that the updates can take time and after certain time stop completely.
The difference is that the manufacturer abandons the phone as soon as it's released; They take your money, they forget about you. CM update, from my experience with the Desire HD, for approx 18 months from release (Oct 2010 - May 2012) for consumer phones, including to Android versions which aren't fully supported by the device (4.0 on the Desire HD, 2.2 only when purchased). Dev phones, by their nature, are updated for longer and worked on more frequently.
Re:Hacker tool (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm a programmer who paid $500 for a very expensive phone. For that price, I need it to be the perfect phone. In other words, to be able to make and receive calls and text messages without fail.
Then why did you buy a smart phone? That's what dumb phones are for. Why did you spend 10X the price on features you don't need?
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But keep in mind that you're holding in your hand a very expensive *telephone*, not some hacker toy.
If all you wanted was a telephone then why did you spend $500 on a smartphone that is effectively a portable computer?
Reflash it back to stock (Score:2)
> "If CyanogenMod Inc. really wants to lower the barrier to entry, they next thing they need is a way for users to just as easily go back to the setup they had before installing CyanogenMod
Reflash your phone back to stock if needed. Sometimes you have to search but typically the manufacturer provides a service tool that can be used. Or you can just take it back to the store you bought it from and make their techs do it.
As far as backing up your data, there are apps to do that.
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Some issues with this. Take Sony Xperia phones for an example: the PC Companion will not automatically update a phone or reflash it back to stock if the bootloader is unlocked. To top it off, there is no official way to relock the bootloader once unlocked. To relock you have to download a 3rd party program called Flashtool which allows you to do this plus more. I wouldn't expect a normal user to find this out easily.
Re:Reflash it back to stock (Score:5, Insightful)
For that matter, we can't expect normal users to spend a couple hours researching anything, even if they do understand search engines. Normal users expect to push a button or two, and get instant gratification.
which is the way it should be, justifying needlessly complex processes is stupid as is blaming the user for not wanting to spend hours researching shit like that.
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You're right. We can't expect a normal user to understand how search engines work. For that matter, we can't expect normal users to spend a couple hours researching anything, even if they do understand search engines. Normal users expect to push a button or two, and get instant gratification.
Look douche, unless you can personally rebuild the transmission on your car (something any mouth drooler can look up on Google), you can jam this attitude up your ass, sideways.
I bet that you are a programmer. You seem to be everything wrong with programmers.
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Reflash your phone back to stock if needed.
Notably "back to stock" is not anywhere close to "back to the setup they had".
Losing all your data in the process is one hell of a change.
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simple instructions (Score:2)
I installed cm10.1 on a Samsung captivate today. Took it from its stock froyo build straight to ics in just 30 minutes. The instructions are more complicated than a one button upgrade but really the problem isn't that there is no way back. The problem is that people don't demand the same service for their purchase from the manufacturer.
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Customs roms aren't really about escaping Google, they are about escaping the lockdown carriers tend to put on their phones.
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They are about not running Facebook. Battery life x5 on my Samsung Note (GT7000).
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For a lot of things, the threat of having the device bricked is overblown.
The only time that I've ever been worried about bricking was on the Motorola Atrix 2 when initially, there was no FXZ or other way to reflash back to a stock ROM. Eventually this was remedied, but for a whole, the modding community for that device was walking a tightrope without a safety net.
This doesn't say that one can't brick a device, as it is doable, especially if one misses some directions or skips steps, but it isn't as common
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If all you've ever owned are Nexus devices, you probably won't see the point. Try using an AT&T Galaxy S3 sometime, and you'll quickly understand why CM is such a big deal.
Say what?!?!?! (Score:1)
As I read it, the complaint is that you can't revert to the old OS if you install a new OS.
Show me any OS installer that does that!
Whinging from an idiot in my books.
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wubi installs Ubuntu in a way that reverting to Windows is trivial.
Re: Say what?!?!?! (Score:1)
Congratulations, that's the most cynical thing I've read this year.
You're totally what's wrong with Linux. Tool.
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As I read it, the complaint is that you can't revert to the old OS if you install a new OS.
Show me any OS installer that does that!
Well, as usual a bunch of people who have never flashed a rom to their phone and don't know fuck about shit are here to comment.
Let's talk about the Nexus 4 in particular. I own one and have been flashing it regularly (heh heh) for days now. This is not my first time around the block, but it is my first Nexus device. The Nexus 7 (also have) is basically the same, a little harder to get into the bootloader. If you flash cyanogenmod to the device via ROM Manager, which requires a compatible (TWRP or CWM) reco
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OMG! You mean I was *wrong*?
Holy shit, like that has *never* happened before. :P
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You're entitled to be wrong, people are wrong all the time, including me.
What you're not allowed to do without comment is chip in on something you've never even touched like you had something insightful to say.
Google Play (Score:1)
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Funny note: cyanogenmod doesn't even come with Google Play.
Now I really want to find some time to get cyanogenmod on my gTab. I'm getting so tired of seeing the constant update of Google apps, and the 20 flavors of Google Play. Even Microsoft saves their updates to one push per month.
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FDroid is better than any "store."
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FDroid is better than any "store."
Doesn't have facebook, flickr, netflix, etc. Pretty useless...
Re:Slashdot is dead. (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot has always been Thus.
It has always been a crows sourced link repository. It was never intended as a publisher of first record.
As for you seldom coming here, I see you posting every day on every story.
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Intelligence down, productivity down, ineffective+gameable metrics up.
Have you even seen how schools and businesses measure people nowadays?
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And they don't have schools or businesses there?
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It has always been a crows sourced link repository.
Crow sourced. That does actually explain a lot...
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Has Netcraft confirmed it?
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:5, Insightful)
uh ... go ask your carrier for upgrade then .
waiting ..
waiting.
waiting.
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:5, Informative)
uh ... go ask your carrier for upgrade then .
This is a fair point. CyanogenMod's strength is that it offers an upgrade path to a great many devices that have been abandoned by their manufacturers.The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, for instance hasn't seen an upgrade from my carrier in well over a year. CM also offers a clear way to de-googlify your phone, for those worried about Google's monitoring their activity. If you want the benefits of (say) Google maps and navigation, you have to consciously download and install the gapps.
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I though the whole point of Nexus phones was to not be controlled by providers?
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Unless you have a Verizon or Sprint Nexus...
If you have one of those, you've been ripped off. Nexus aren't tied to carriers.
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Unless you have a Verizon or Sprint Nexus...
If you have one of those, you've been ripped off. Nexus aren't tied to carriers.
Or the AC in question has never touched a Nexus and is just trolling.
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> If you have one of those, you've been ripped off. Nexus aren't tied to carriers.
Unfortunately, the Verizon and Sprint Galaxy Nexi WERE tied to carriers. They were built with a Qualcomm chipset whose drivers were all basically closed and unique to Sprint/Verizon. Qualcomm won't even sneeze without the carriers' permission, so Google was hamstrung and couldn't release newer firmware for them. That's why Google walked away from supporting CDMA phones in disgust, and refused (at first) to license LTE radio
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> Rule #1 of mobile phones: never buy one from a telco. It is always more expensive and they add crap.
Unfortunately, if you're American and stuck with Verizon or Sprint for reasons of coverage or some other factor, you really don't have any other choice. Sprint won't activate non-Sprint phones, and a non-Verizon phone without Verizon's radio modem firmware operating on Verizon can't authenticate to EVDO, so your data speeds will max out at ~150kbps 1xRTT.
In theory, AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM... but if
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Or you could buy a unlocked Nexus 5 directly from Google which supports LTE on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
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CM also offers a clear way to de-googlify your phone, for those worried about Google's monitoring their activity.
this is why google will buy them.
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:4, Informative)
Once upon a time CM bundled the common Google apps like Calendar, GMail, Market etc. Google came down hard on them, and CM were forced to put those apps into a separate package — they couldn't bundle them with the standard CM image anymore.
In short, CM is de-googlified by default because Google told them so.
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but that's just nonsense. Microsoft doesn't give you an entire functional open source OS while keeping back just a few proprietary apps.
Can you state exactly how AOSP is "crippled"? The version Google ships with their devices is exactly the same OS, only some of the apps are different proprietary versions. Like Linux or BSD or any open source OS it can run closed source apps.
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Sorry, but that's just nonsense. Microsoft doesn't give you an entire functional open source OS while keeping back just a few proprietary apps.
While I agree that it is far from as closed as Microsoft it certainly is more than "just a few proprietary apps", pretty much all the stock apps are proprietary as is Google Play Services which provides APIs like GCM, SSO, multiplayer apis, cloud saves, location, maps, ads. Google Play Services is a great idea to combat the problems of phones not being able to update to the latest versions of the operating system by providing new OS features as APIs in a separate APK that users can install on older versions
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:5, Insightful)
That really IS silly. I get so tired of greedy bastards who think that their "intellectual property" is worth quintillions of dollars. But - people DO need to eat, they need homes, some of them hope to raise kids, some like to have their own private transportation.
A company isn't evil just because it's "for profit". They may BECOME evil, in the pursuit of profits, but profits aren't evil.
Real life has a way of destroying idealist's dreams. Unless, of course, you are posting from some alternate dimension in which no one needs or wants profits. How does everyone eat over there? You should share your secrets with us!
Re:FOR-PROFIT CORP !! NO THANX !! (Score:5, Funny)
Unless, of course, you are posting from some alternate dimension in which no one needs or wants profits. How does everyone eat over there? You should share your secrets with us!
Its easy. When Mom stomps twice on the floor above his basement lair, it means dinner is ready.
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There is a difference between wages and profit.
Wages are necessary.
Breaking even is necessary.
Profit is a religious thing.
Oh, and you don't get to create artificial scarcity just to guarantee someone a viable business.
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You're arguing that profit is one method of amassing the capital to start or expand a business under capitalism. This is not the same as arguing that profit is necessary.
To answer your question:
1) One might start up a business because they want a job and they want to be their own boss. That's why I did it;
2) To start up this business, I used savings from wages from working as a regular employee;
3) I've never needed a loan, 'cos I'm awesome, but if I did, I'd take it from my local credit union, which merely
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Especially if you're self-employed, a freelancer etc; they're both the same thing, or at least coming out of the same pot. The difference usually comes down to how they're taxed.
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... 2) To start up this business, I used savings from wages from working as a regular employee; ...
So, that savings from your wages that was above and beyond your living expenses, what would you call it? Sounds like profit to me.
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It's a proportion of the value of my labour to the company.
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The crap are you talking about? It's a measure of the ridiculousness of someone's worldview when they end up with absurdities like "a person is just a type of business".
To break your analogy immediately: profit is by definition something a business does NOT use for its own enjoyment- it is primarily the reward to the owners of its capital; whereas by your analogy, profit is something a human DOES use for its own enjoyment. The underlying factor here is that businesses are not humans.
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A nonprofit startup can be funded by another nonprofit or a group of backers who form the nonprofit. Once established, they operate much like other companies except there is never any pretense that they will pay back their investors or share the cash they generate with them, as for-profit corporations pretend to do.
Amazon (Score:1)
If profit is not necessary, could you give me one reason why anyone would fund a startup?
Why don't you ask the investors of Amazon.
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There is a difference between wages and profit.
Wages are necessary.
Breaking even is necessary.
Profit is a religious thing.
Oh, and you don't get to create artificial scarcity just to guarantee someone a viable business.
That's correct. Not for profits can continue to run indefinitely without ever making a profit as long as what they are doing remains valuable to people who support their existence and non-profit-making.
Most companies, however, must make a profit to justify their tying up working capital that could be profitably engaged elsewhere.
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Not for profits can continue to run indefinitely without ever making a profit
Nonprofits that "run indefinitely" spend the majority of their revenues on fundraising and compensation, not on accomplishing their tasks. The ones that actually try to do something quickly discover that their revenues fluctuate wildly, making planning and retention virtually impossible. So they either morph into the fat and lazy kind of nonprofit or else they perish.
Most companies, however, must make a profit to justify their tying up working capital that could be profitably engaged elsewhere. [emphasis mine]
What is "profitably" if not "as evidenced by the ability to make a profit"? Through what mechanism do you propose that "working capital" be
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There are numerous examples of nonprofits that spend the majority of their revenues on activities other than fundraising. For example Oxfam and the American Heart Association. Oxfam raised 918M Euros and spent 77M on fundraising. AHA raised $674M in 2012 and spent $80M on fundraising.
By profit, I mean in a general sense an increase in the net value of an enterprise, accruing to the benefit of the owners of that enterprise.
This distinguishes a for-profit company from from a nonprofit, where there may be
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There are numerous examples of nonprofits that spend the majority of their revenues on activities other than fundraising. For example Oxfam and the American Heart Association. Oxfam raised 918M Euros and spent 77M on fundraising. AHA raised $674M in 2012 and spent $80M on fundraising.
A fair counterpoint, although Oxfam is not that old. Just because it works for some organizations does not mean it would work for all of them, though.
By profit, I mean in a general sense an increase in the net value of an enterprise, accruing to the benefit of the owners of that enterprise.
Fair enough, but the sentence I was asking about does not make any more sense given that definition.
You can imagine a nonprofit doing almost anything, including manufacturing, distributing and selling goods to the public.
Yes, I can imagine it. So, you want to run a nonprofit making computers and I want to run a for-profit making computers, we should both be allowed to do so. Your enterprise may be more successful, or mine may be. But if mine succeeds where yours fails, would
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For a nonprofit, the tying up of working capital in unprofitable enterprises isn't a concern at all. It's not their goal. A for profit is established to financially benefit its owners so opportunity cost matters to the owners.
People tend to want profit, which is why there are so many more for-profit than nonprofit enterprises. But that doesn't mean that for-profit enterprises are the only way to work.
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For a nonprofit, the tying up of working capital in unprofitable enterprises isn't a concern at all.
But it is a concern when we're talking about calling "profit a religious thing". There are opportunity costs whether people care about them or not and there are government-imposed restrictions that induce significant distortions in the functioning of the economy. The gist of this discussion has been that profit is unnecessary and therefore for-profit enterprises can be replaced with nonprofits at essentially no cost.
The people who know best how to exploit capital in a particular place and time (call them
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There is a difference between wages and profit.
Only on paper. What is the material difference between income paid as wages and income paid to investors?
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Meanwhile the other group fronted the capital to start the business and infused capital to keep the business running.
So wages paid to employees and profit paid to investors is really the same thing: reward for doing something to help the business.
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"publicly traded"
That is unnecessary for some people. If your sole motive is profit, then maybe being publicly traded is a good thing. Small businesses, however, manage to keep on going, year after year, sometimes decade after decade, eking out a modest living for themselves, and their employees, and showing a modest profit. Such businesses often have no desire to compete on national or international markets.
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Could you give a less awful example than Canonical?
Red Hat and IBM are mentionable. IBM have been one of the evillest companies on earth, by hopefully unambiguous standards. Red Hat are awwww-right.
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You should talk to Steve Jobs about that. I'm sure the NSA can hook you up with a direct line - they know everyone else's business.