Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 15:17:38 +0530 (IST) From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD" Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.20.0003171317360.7695-100000@theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <4.2.2.20000317004047.04182240@localhost>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Brett Glass wrote: > > Ok, then you need to immediately cease all plans to ever market > >any product that uses the word FreeBSD in it. No halfway intelligent > >person would ever grant anyone the right to use their trademark without > >having full knowledge about what kind of product their name is going to be > >placed on. > > I guess you do not consider Linus Torvalds to be intelligent, then. He did not originally consider the question: iirc, the name Linux was trademarked on his behalf only after someone else tried to trademark it first. Since then, of course, he has been quite liberal with allowing people to use it, and consequently, together with the genuine companies, ripoffs like LinuxOne have also tried to cash in. I doubt anybody in the FreeBSD world wants to move in that direction. Linux's success shows the way but Linus's decision was not a conscious one, he may have done things differently if he had had prior examples to follow, and at this point of time an intelligent person would try and adopt the good ideas and avoid the mistakes. > Yes, I do. And when it doesn't work, it's usually due to people being > overly controlling, possessive, and/or otherwise anal retentive, as > you are being here. It's people like you, and attitudes such as yours, > which are the greatest dangers to the BSDs' success and have kept them > from achieving prominence up to this point. No. The greatest danger to the BSD's success is the attitude of certain BSD zealots who believe that it is the one true way and anything GPL'd must be evil. This is what kept me from "advocating" BSD for a long time, though I could admit to liking it. Linux has its rabid zealots, but I see no reason to imitate them; and it's ridiculous to go about replacing the "Gates is evil" banner of many linuxers with a "Stallman is Satan" banner. Even if such ranting has succeeded in converting some people to linux, it will not help BSD: Gates is a favourite target of hate among unix people and even among the more knowledgeable people in the dos/windows world, but Stallman is quite widely respected even among those who don't totally subscribe to his ideology. A newcomer, especially one with prior linux experience, would get totally turned off by some of the postings on these mailing lists. These lists are not really private discussions. They're a support system, publicly archived, browsable, and a way to initiate newcomers into the community. On the positive side, in the year or so during which I've been "listening in", attitudes do seem to be changing, with more positive discussion of BSD and (slightly) less talk about the shoddiness of linux and the sinister hidden agenda behind the GPL. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.20.0003171317360.7695-100000>