Re: GPL Software (fwd)

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

Koree A. Smith said:
> I can't believe this guy.  I know what he's trying to tell me here, I was just
> using the term "OS" loosely.  Why do some ppl not read past wording choice?  I
> mean, I'm not going to define what an OS really is every time I talk about
> something.  Blah.
[...]
> PS - Yeah, I know how big of a guru Richard Stallman is, but I still
> "semi-flaimed" him.  I don't care if yer the pope.  I'm not going to take taht
> kind of down talk.

RMS (known in some circles as BPH -- Bruce Parens is LPH if you need a
hint about the acronym, email me if you really want to know and can't
figure it out) is a nutcase, as far as I'm concerned.  Need proof?
Take a look at the URL below.

rms said:
> Many people speak of Linux as the name of an operating system, but
> this isn't really right.  Linux is actually a kernel.  Please see
> http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html for an explanation.

If you need more proof, just read anything the man says.  For example,
anything on www.{fsf,gnu}.org, his quotes in the recent news.com story
on free software

    http://www.news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,18652,00.html

IMNSHO, Stallman is a fanatic.  He's more worried about seeing *every*
company give away *all* their source under the GPL (and, of course,
everyone giving him credit for saving the world) than about actually
seeing some real progress made toward that goal.  As with everything,
this battle is being won incrementally, but rms is not a incremental
kind of guy.

He drives me insane!

Another example of what makes me nuts:

    http://www.gnu.org/software/java/java.html

Read it and see if you can see why.

We should all be looking toward people like Eric Raymond, Linus
Torvalds, Larry Wall, and others for leadership (if we want leaders,
that is).  Some required reading:

    http://www.jargon.org/~esr/open-source.html
    http://www.jargon.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

(Don't be alarmed, but both of those URLs will just redirect you to
an appropriate location.  Since this list is being archived these
days, I hate to use URLs that I'm not sure will be around for a while.
FWIW, www.jargon.org is my mirror of the online Jargon File...)

Keep your eye on http://www.silug.org/~steve/rants/ for more in the
near future.  :-)

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Linux Users of Central Illinois
(217)698-1694             | Meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.luci.org/ for more info

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