Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 8 Oct 1998 18:16:07 -0400 | From | "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <> | Subject | Re: UDI and Free Software |
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From: Alan McLean <amcl@flash.net> Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 13:30:37 -0500
it's amazing the lack of respect people seem to have for the FSF/GNU today. where would Linux, or any of the free Unix be today, without the work already done by the FSF, i.e. the GNU toolchain.
To be fair, for much of the GNU programs, very little of the work was done by the FSF itself, but rather done by volunteers that donated their code back to the FSF (just as the Linux development community is composed of volunteers). Sure rms wrote the original emacs program, and did a lot of the original work on GCC, but these days, most of what the FSF does is legal paperwork. (And dealing with that is a real pain, let me tell you.... even if you want to donate code back to the FSF, the legal paperwork can be a real killer.)
I suspect the lack of respect for the FSF has a lot to do with RMS's lack of a user interface, especially when he tried to grab what many thought was undue credit for Linux's successes. Sure, he and all of the volunteers for the FSF deserves credit, but trying to grab more credit that people think is your due is the best way to lose respect in this community.
(For another example, consider what happened when Frank Xia tried to rename his xiafs to be "linuxfs", and how the community reacted to that proposal.)
- Ted
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