Slashdot Mirror
Free Software Developer's Meeting In Europe
physicman writes: "This weekend (3 & 4 Feb.) the first edition of the Open Source and Free Software Developers' European Meeting will be held in Brussels, Belgium.
I think it is the first time that such a meeting occurs in Europe and it is very exciting to see what will come out of gathering at the same place people working on very different projects like Fyodor of nmap fame, Jeremy Allison from Samba, Rasterman (Enlightenment) and many others (full list here).
Richard Stallman will also give a keynote about the danger of software patents.
So, if you're in the neighborhood (for instance at the LinuxExpo in Paris) don't miss the opportunity to talk and hack (yes, there will be a hacking room too) with some of the top developers of the Open Source and Free Software movement!"
> What do they need to meet for? that's what IRC is for.
And all this time I thought it was for downloading warez and pr0n.
Oops, did I say that out loud?
:q!
^Z
quit
agh!!!
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
Some good points, but it's still kick-ass for people who need it. That's not to say it doesn't have problems. Lets see if I can address your points one by one:
Actually I think the current documentation is pretty good. Not awesome, but not bad. Check back on the web site to see. Of course, you sound like you've got some experience with Midgard, so maybe you can contribute some improvements :-).
Actually, it's written in 'C', with PHP as the scripting language. Version 2 will be language independant, with, at least PHP & Perl. Probably a few others by the time we're done.
Very much a matter of taste. I'm not really a fan of Java. Still, it should be possible to build servlet support into 2.0, but I don't know if anybody will do it. We'd have to find a developer who likes them first. Again, we'd welcome volunteers :-).
Actually I think the problem was getting wrapped up in 1.4. I wasn't involved in the project when the "original" 2.0 was planned, so I don't know why it never got off the ground. I've been pushing the "new" 2.0 for several months now, however, and it's moving forward well. The rest of the development team is just wrapping up 1.4.1, and will be going full-force on 2.0 after OSDEM.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
RMS is a doer. You are a talker. Writing code is only one form of doing.
The subject that RMS is going to speak about is the very thing that could kill free software dead: ubiquitous patents could make most free software illegal. So could laws like the DMCA. If activists don't fight them, free software is over -- unless programmers want to risk jail.
We need activists more than ever. And an activist who doesn't ever piss people off is probably not an effective activist.
I would say they do a lot. The point is not whether RMS, or anyone else associated with the FSF, is pouring out loads of code today (although Miguel certainly is). That was never the point of the FSF. The point of the FSF is to create the social forces neccessary to cause free software to flourish. In the beginning, that meant writing a free C compiler. Then it meant writing the GPL, and organising an effort to clone UNIX (but notice that the most important job they did was to ensure that the uncool, boring, essential bits got written). Another valuable thing they did was to help launch the Debian project, so that there would be a GNU/Linux distribution focused on freeness. More recently, they helped organise a lot of the infrastructure needed to launch GNOME (and hence a big factor in causing the existence of *two* free desktop environments). All those projects are now ticking along nicely and would continue if the FSF disappeared tomorrow, but none of them have quite the same scope as the FSF.
They are a big force in finding gaps which nobody is filling, and ensuring that they get filled. The FSF is unique in that its primary goal is to foster free software, and it is working and has worked on things which would be outside the scope of any of the other projects mentioned above. (Also remember that they do a lot of behind the scenes work, e.g. on ensuring that the GPL is enforced, that the public never gets to hear about).
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
There really should be a cover charge for this event.
That way they could afford to get Natalie Portman as a guest grits tester.
I suggest the charge be A DOLLAR
it's it me or is there just something uh, hmmm, werd w/ their logo?
theories:
Good to see this on Slashdot!
I can't resist a plug: come see me talk about Midgard, a kick-ass content management system.
I'll be focusing on the upcoming version 2.0, but version 1.4 is stable and works great for content-rich web sites. That means anything where you have a lot of content that changes often.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
> It's time to abolish RMS. Without apology.
;)
I definitely disagree. And I don't understand your point. RMS designed,founded and led the GNU project, hats off RMS ! He wrote the GNU GPL, and is still working on new versions and legal issues, nice work ! I wouldn't do it myself. He tries to fight software patents, to protect the right to code for the new coders you're calling. He also hacked gcc, emacs, gdb which are invaluable tools, the elementary bricks to build the whole Free Software House. He doesn't seem to code anymore, so what ?
He's useful and has certainely more clues about the real wolrd than the average 15 year old nerd. RMS pours moral salt and pepper into the whole Free Software cauldron. He insists on Freedom being more important than wealth and commerce, cooperation being more valuable for Society than greed. What an unusual and refreshing vision of the world !
Keep on speaking RMS, you're condemned to repeat the same old printer driver story over and over !
Frankly, we need him.
--
gdon
I like Linux, I believe in a lot of the concepts of Open Source, but I emphatically believe that should someone want to bring a quality solution to the market and ask for payment, maybe even keep the source hidden, there is nothing worng with that at all. I would be happy to enjoy that software, assuming it meets the quality level I am used to with Open Source software.
Open source has its place in creating high quality software, just as closed source has its place in incentivising companies wishing to protect their ideas to bring products to market. RMS: He's worth listening to, but he isn't the only guiding light of the Open Source movement.
Wow, maybe I'm being an extremist!
Are you being serious?
1) Open Source has nothing to do with 'let's do everything over the internet'.
2) All OSS authors do not live in the US, believe it or not.
3) What's 'close door' about this? It's not like it's in remote Siberia. it's not like it's HARD to go to Europe...
4) Have you considered all the people in Europe who can't go to all the meetings in the US for the same reasons?
5) Have you considered that just *maybe* some in the open-source movement are tired of US capitalist attitudes, and find Europeans more open and accepting?
Yes we all know the terror of a +2 Software Patent of intimidation!
It's a question I've been pondering for a while, and I think I've arrived at an answer ("no") which many of you share. But for me, it's for an entirely different reason from most. RMS just doesn't go far enough.
Let's face it, he's coasting. Ever since the lisp machine went out of style, he's been coasting. Ever since he founded the FSF, he's been coasting. He's been coasting on the name recognition he gets, and he's been coasting on his few small legal victories (notably over Apple for the objective-c extensions of gcc). What has he done lately?
He hasn't released a new version of emacs in years, and frankly, that can only be a good thing. Gcc is now in other people's hands, so he's not actively helping with that development. He still heads up the FSF, which still owns much of the free software out there (through voluntary transfer of copyright), but what've they done lately besides bitch and moan? What new groundbreaking software have they developed?
They haven't, and RMS hasn't. All the innovation has been coming from outside, from the people doing GNOME, GNUStep and all the rest. But you never see those people giving these keynotes. It's entirely undemocratic, really. We need real representation of the up-and-coming talent, not a tired rehash of a wizened hippy which may have been revolutionary for its time but is now old hat. Give us new blood.
RMS doesn't define the free-software movement anymore, anymore than ESR ever did. They're both playing the same tune, singing the same song, dancing the same dance, and mowing the same lawn that they've been mowing for the past twenty years. And where has it gotten us? Well, it hasn't exactly gotten in the way of progress to the point where we couldn't get anything done, but it hasn't exactly made our progress smooth.
We need doers, not talkers. We need doers to give these keynote addresses, because only then can people be inspired to pursue our dreams and do our bidding. RMS is letting his morality get in the way of progress again, whereas someone who is actually engineering our progress could tell us exactly how to go about helping.
We don't need activists, anymore. Those battles have already been won. It's time to retire RMS, ESR, and the rest to pasture (or better yet, to the knackery), and let the free-software movement cast forth its green shoots and flourish. The old must give way to the new; I know this only too well. It's time to abolish RMS. Without apology.
Read the rest of this comment...
Brussels MIDI /Zuid) train station is around 1 hour from Paris "Gare du Nord" which makes it quite quick and relatively cheap to join the Linux Expo and Brussels.
BTW, I lived in both town and I also invite cartoon lovers to make a stop at the cartoon museum ("Musee de la Bande Dessinee").
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
working link
it's it me or is there just something uh, hmmm, werd w/ their logo?
nmarshall
The law is that which it boldly asserted and plausibly maintained..
nmarshall
The law is that which it boldly asserted and plausibly maintained..
--Colonel Burr 1783
... will he bathe prior to this event?
Thanks in advance.
-- Patrick Bateman, Esq.