movies, open source, RMS and linux...

From: Doc Shipley <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
Date: Wed Nov 24 16:21:45 2004

Brad Parker wrote:

> [oops. severely off topic. aren't I allowed one of these per quarter? :-)]
>
> Doc Shipley wrote:
>
>>comes off as pretty even-handed and non-fanatical. People like Bruce
>>Perens and Eric Raymond get as much credit as Stallman and Torvalds do.
>
>
> I think that's a shame. I remember the original email Linus sent out
> (on usenet) about this "new os".

   Ahh. I'm sorry, I wasn't being nearly as clear as I thought I was.
I meant that in a relative sense, ERS and Perens got as much credit for
their work as Stallman and Torvalds got for theirs. Generally they get
completely ignored.

> And I think Stallman is head and shoulders above all of them.
>
> He may be mad, and a total 'PITA', but he's 10x the programmer and
> visionary.
>
> And I think he deserves a lot more of the credit for the open source
> movement. Stallman was working on open source when Linus was still in
> grade school.

   No doubt. I do a lot of Linux training, some of it for seasoned *nix
admins "crossing over". They're about the only ones I run into who know
that GNU/FSF isn't an offshoot of Linux.

   I don't know Stallman personally (except through some email
correspondence on behalf of a LUG), but I think your assessment is spot
on. I do know and work with a couple of people who worked directly with
him at FSF in the '80s and '90s, and they are completely insufferable,
much in the way that Christian Scientists, Moonies, or Jehovah's
Witnesses are. "If It Ain't GNU, It Can't Be True", and intrusive as hell.

   And yeah, I probably just managed to offend the *rest* of CCTalk.
Oh, well.


        Doc
Received on Wed Nov 24 2004 - 16:21:45 GMT