Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 09:16:52 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD" Message-ID: <4.2.2.20000317090329.041ccde0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.20.0003171317360.7695-100000@theory1.physics.ii sc.ernet.in> References: <4.2.2.20000317004047.04182240@localhost>
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At 02:47 AM 3/17/2000 , Rahul Siddharthan wrote: >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 It isn't >and anything GPL'd must be evil. To say that it is "evil" is a bit extreme. However, one can sympathize with this view, to some extent, because it IS true that to propagate the GPL is unethical. The GPL is explicitly intended to turn open source into a weapon which hurts innocent people, and hurting people who have done you no harm is unethical by definition. So, it pays to forgive the extremists; there is some truth to what they say. >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. Those who respect Stallman appear to respect the PR image which has been carefully spun for him by ESR and others. Those who know the history of the FSF and the GPL understand that they are the result of a petty grudge. RMS is not a "Satan," but he IS a pathetic figure in that he has spent the past 16 years trying to get back at some co-workers who left the MIT AI Lab to start companies. Sort of like an obsessed former spouse stalking an "ex" and vowing revenge. It's sad, not Satanic. But people need to know what really happened to see this. If they read Stallman's propaganda, or listen to the Linuxoids talk about him, they won't. >A newcomer, especially one with prior linux experience, would get >totally turned off by some of the postings on these mailing >lists. I think they'd be even more quickly turned off by gnu.misc.discuss. ;-) >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. Linux isn't "shoddy," though it is of lower quality than the BSDs, IMHO. As for the agenda behind the GPL: the story DOES deserve to be told, because not becoming part of Stallman's agenda is a strong motivation to use the BSDs instead. No one likes to be used, and if one embraces the GPL then one IS being used to further Stallman's personal aims. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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