[plug] [link] lwn letter - amazing....

[The Thought Assassin]

On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Craig Ringer wrote:
> Thought I'd direct those interested to a letter over at lwn:
> http://lwn.net/Articles/6541/
> I personally find it embarrasing that there are people who write in like
> that to a bunch who've worked so hard for so little, for so long.

To me he seemed to be making valid points, but in a style made a little
more abrasive than necessary by his obvious frustration. He did thank them
for their hard work, and also offered his suggestions as to how they could
have prevented it coming to such a sad end. I think perhaps he could have
shown a bit more understanding of _why_ LWN were blinded by circumstance
to his (rather obvious) suggestion until it was too late.

> <bitter>He's probably from the "email <sw company x> and tell them that
> they have to open source their sofware, because all information wants to
> be free!" crowd. *arrggh*.</bitter>.

Is there such a crowd? I've always sensed a firm divide between the
"information wants to be free, so let's make free information and talk
about ways to make all information free" and the "lets email companies
suggesting the benefits they could reap from opening their source" camps.
Anyone who would speak along those lines must surely have heard a garbled
version of the message from both camps and arrived at the above illogical
conclusion by combining their misunderstandings of both.

> I'm _so_ fed up with the counter-productive and immature way that some
> of the FSF-zealot crowd behave, especially since it gives everybody else
> a bad name.

Such as? In my experience, the FSF has been easily the most consistently
rational, pragmatic proponent of Free Software/Open Source principles,
while many of the leaders of the Open Source faction have given us
confused, ambiguous, even contradictory messages from time to time, and
certainly failed to maintain any consistency or clarity of vision and
purpose over time.

> Most people, especially those not really involved with / following
> OSS can't tell the difference between the FSF and OS philosophies,

I don't think anyone not involved with or following OSS would have heard
anything of FSF philosophies: The Open Source "What can I get for free?"
ethos may well have impacted on them, (because _everyone_ notices free
stuff) but the Free Software "What is right and best for our society?" is
far too esoteric to have a real-life impact on those outside the "scene".

> and between the realists and zealot extermists in those camps.
> Naturally, the zealots often get noticed more because they're so
> in-your-face... *sigh*.

Depressing isn't it? But it's hardly a phenomenon that is limited to our
particular political landscape. The problem is that once you start
filtering those out and trying to find a middle ground, you quickly end up
with the kind of middle-of-the-road confusion that made you so <bitter/>
above. :(

> And yeah I'm really annoyed as per the tone of this message, but I
> really am trying not to start a flamewar...

And nor am I, in the all-too-likely case that it's not apparent. ;)

-Greg