Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux | Date | Thu, 24 Dec 1998 00:13:43 +0100 | From | "Michel Eyckmans (MCE)" <> |
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> On a philosophical level, Mr. Stallman articulated seminal ideas > that have guided the development of a simply amazing quality and > quantity of software. > > He deserves respect.
That's what I give him. In fact, if it would not be written in dutch, I could include here the e-mail that I sent to a local computer weekly after they printed a negative article about him. In it I point out how they failed to do their research, that if they had done it properly they would not have printed their negative claims about his motivations, and that I therefore strongly suggest that they print an apology and a correction in a later edition.
But all that does not make him a faultless god. With respect to the GNU/Linux thing he is wrong for no other reason that it is not up to people to rename somebody elses product/brainchild. Besides, his reasoning for it does not hold. (And yes, I build my entire system from source myself, so I *do* know how much of it is GNU.)
Yes, I respect him. And still I think that on this topic his motivations are personally biased because events overtook him so that The Hurd no longer has a chance to not make it big time, independent of its technical merits. And maybe also because others get "more" credit/visibility for the free/open source ideas. But that is a price that one must be willing to pay when one decides to steer a course that is seen by the "normal world" as confrontational. I applaud the (very) few people who are willing to do this kind of thing, but consider that they must accept the consequences. All of them.
Finally, let me at this point explicitly join the crowd that wants this thread moved out of linux-kernel.
MCE -- ======================================================================== M. Eyckmans (MCE) Code of the Geeks v3.1 mce@ping.be GCS d+ s+:- a33 C+++$ UHLUASO+++$ P+ L+++ E--- W++ N+++ !o K w--- !O M-- V-- PS+ PE+ Y+ PGP- t--- !5 !X R- tv- b+ DI++ D-- G++ e+++ h+(*) !r y? ========================================================================
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