On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, Brad Parker wrote:
> 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".
>
> 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.
The refreshing thing about the film is that you don't have any ego or
one-upmanship apparent in the interviews. Stallman is very complimentary
about Torvalds and speaks highly of his contribution. He also very
rationally explains how it came to be that they made all these excellent
GNU tools but didn't have a kernel by the time Linus made his, and then
how people put the two together to form a perfect marriage and have a full
free *-nix OS.
I'd heard that Stallman was pissed that Linus got all the credit, but that
didn't come off at all in the film. And now that I have a much better
understanding of the whole story (I must admit I never really followed it)
I see now how Stallman does have a point regarding who should get the real
credit for Linux. They both do really.
Anyway, I've still go 40 minutes to watch so maye the mudslinging happens
later on in the film. As far as fanaticism and propaganda, Bruce Perens
comes off as the most obnoxious in that vein. He takes a few
opportunities to slam Microsoft, and while it is deserved, some of it is
a bit over the top, like his claim that Microsoft was the compnay that
started the whole proprietary software thing. I suppose he's never heard
of IBM, as one example?
The film is available through Netflix (highly recommended...say BYE BYE
Blockbuster).
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Received on Wed Nov 24 2004 - 16:43:03 GMT