Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2001 23:38:03 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Rich Morin <rdm@cfcl.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD spokesman. Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010706232508.04669960@localhost> In-Reply-To: <p05100311b76bca89c163@[192.168.168.205]> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010706012158.0449d990@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010705190110.045359a0@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010706012158.0449d990@localhost>
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At 05:12 PM 7/6/2001, Rich Morin wrote: >Brett Glass, quite obviously, has very strong opinions on Stallman and >the GPL. He is welcome to promote his positions in any forum that will >accept him. Thank you. And, no, you're not obliged to listen if the conversation gets dull or repetitive. I realize that it does at times. Part of advocacy, alas, is repeating oneself more than one would like. >OTOH, I have NO interest in having Brett act as any sort of "official" >spokesperson for FreeBSD in particular or BSD in general. I certainly wouldn't want to be a sole spokesman. But I think that it is important that someone champion the BSD philosophy and voice the many ethical and practical arguments against the GPL. I could certainly play that role. >Any "official" spokesman for FreeBSD needs to have a "centrist" position >on most issues, Actually, the idea that the GPL is destructive, and that the BSD License is superior, *is* a centrist position. The extremes are the GPL and Microsoft. The BSD philosophy lies between these two extremes, both of which are destructive. >a tolerance for diversity, the ability to compromise on >occasion, and strong technical credentials (e.g., as a committer or some >other form of substantial contributor to FreeBSD). I believe that I have all of these except the status of a committer. (It's probably better that I *not* be a committer, since I do not at all like the C language and prefer to program in just about anything else!) There is really only one area in which I strongly believe that there is no room for compromise: ethics. The GPL is unethical, IMHO, in that it's discriminatory and destructive. It is also counter to the BSD philosophy. It is important that we be as uncompromising on this point as the GPL zealots are on the other side. YMMV, of course. >FWIW, my own position is that long-term FreeBSD's strengths lie in its >commitment to good engineering, "best practice", etc. This is certainly one of FreeBSD's strongest points. (But, of course, Linux fans will claim the same for THEIR preferred OS.) I would argue that the true distinction lies deeper -- in philosophy. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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