Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 00:25:53 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in (Rahul Siddharthan) Cc: nik@FreeBSD.ORG (Nik Clayton), msmith@FreeBSD.ORG (Mike Smith), scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Open Source Development Laboratory ... Message-ID: <200101270025.RAA09057@usr01.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <20010126143008.P68002@lpt.ens.fr> from "Rahul Siddharthan" at Jan 26, 2001 02:30:08 PM
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> (2) The DVD DeCSS case. The ability to play DVDs is as important to > the BSD's as to linux, and I think some of the defendants in that case > were actually using BSD systems. But nearly all the "activism" seems > to come out of the linux camp. Recently I read of an amicus curiae > brief (http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-bac.htm) signed by, among > others, Marvin Minsky, Brian Kernighan, and (on the linux/GNU side) > RMS and Andy Hertzfeld (Eazel). Previously, other well-known linux > people like Alan Cox have spoken about and made contributions to this > case. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a single well-known > BSD person has said anything in public about this case, either way. The prolem with the DVD code is that there is no packaged BSD version. I think that BSD, despite the many people involved outside the U.S. is largely U.S.-provincial. This is an important point, since outside the U.S., one is immune to U.S. law, and can openly defy it by packaginge code up, to the consternation of the U.S. authorities, and those pushing for them to act against transgressors -- largely U.S. commercial media and governmental organizations, with no teeth outside their own borders. What a German hacker can do with impunity, a U.S. hacker will, in fact, find themselves legally entangled, at great expense. What it boils down to, is that BSD needs more people outside the U.S. that do for BSD what the extra-territorial Linux people are doing for Linux. > (3) The question of software patents in Europe. I've seen this as part > of some signatures, and so on, on FreeBSD lists, but that's about it. > The petition against it is housed at http://petition.eurolinux.org. Similar reasoning applies here: European legislation has little impact on those already suffering under the U.S. equivalent. > It's funny that though all the above look (superficially, at least) > like "linux against big business" fights, and the BSDs like to > advertise their business-friendliness, the big businesses are flocking > to linux rather than to BSD. To me, these look like non-U.S. vs. U.S. Corporate interests fights. In order to be involved against U.S. corporate interests, or the legislation that their lobbying and campaign contributions have been able to buy (like the current lack of sales tax on any Internet purchases, as a positive example), you have to be willing to paint a target on your back. It's a hell of a lot easier to do this, and prance around publically making a lot of noise, if you are out of range of the reprecussions. Probably, a larger non-U.S. core team and committer base would help BSD here. The language barrier isn't a barrier for Linux, since it doesn't have a core team or committer construct. Other than the king and his lords, every contribtor is a vassal, so Linux is in effect a much more egalitarian society, and doesn't have the inherent regional bias that these geocentric structures tend to generate in BSD. This was not helped by a lot of the extraterritorial BSD people being moved into the U.S. by offers of BSDi and similar employment. The lack of acknowledged BSD pundits speaking out in the regular media channels, and on petitions, which are generally not nearly as risky as donning the target T-shirt, probably has a lot to do with the fact that the BSD comminuity shouts most of its pundits down. As far as I can tell, there is a general consensus in the BSD community that ESR, for example, is not much more than a self-made media phenomenon. Many of us remember his promises about where the royalties for the published version of the JARGON.TXT file were going to go, which got us to contribute to his project, and are slow to forgive him. But he _is_ a media phenomenon, now. These people arise because they go find a parade, and then get out in front of it, with a baton. It looks like people are following the guy with the baton. If he isn't beaten into submission by the people behind him, who realize what he's doing, then he may actually attract other followers, and then he can set the future course the parade will take, and have the majority follow him, no matter who started the original parade, or even if it self-assembled because current conditions demanded one. > Moreover, nearly all the desktop/userland software activity is taking > place on linux, and getting ported to BSD from there. And nearly all > of it is under the GPL or other licenses more restrictive than the BSD > license. BSDs are commerce friendly, not business friendly, if you think about it in any depth at all. The BSDs have consistently tried to claim the server space as their forte, to deflect competition. Guess what: this strategy works very well. It's exactly the same strategy that UNIX vendors used to deflect competition against Microsoft being a "problem" for them. Now Microsoft is going after the server market, and beating out UNIX. It really should be no surprise that Linux is breating down the collective neck of BSD, and isn't willing to split the world into nice, orderly kingdoms, over which the same families can rule in peace, as neighbors, forever after. > I think what matters here is mindshare. Linux has it not because it's > a better or more user-friendly OS, but because the community focuses > itself on many more issues than merely programming. Actually, it;s a philosophical war, and BSD is sitting on the fence; it's no wonder it hasn't seen any action. > In short, if linux is getting too heavily associated with "open > source" these days, I think it's because the phrase "open source" is > getting associated with much more than operating systems these days. > The "linux community" is in the thick of all parts of the action. The first argument is wrong; the last argument is spot-on. BSD people are not starting the new projects, Linux people are, and so the new projects go forth with their philosophy. For grey-market projects, which are quasi-legal or illegal in the U.S., there are not a lot of BSD takers. Media spotlights focus on controverst, and BSD people are not controversial enough. There are really no risk takers, if you think about it, in either camp. There haven't been Phil Zimmerman or Kevin Mitnick style arrests over the issues you point out as being important. The thing that drives the controversy is the corporate interests sabre-rattling, and crying that U.S. law should be extended outside the U.S. in order to protect them from competition. It boils down to needing people who can safely engage in the bear-baiting to get the spotlight, if that's the type of attention you want (many BSD people, seeing they can't safely have that, will undoubtedly say "we don't want that, anyway"; it's human nature to devalue what one is unwilling to pay for as being not worth buying). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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