Free Software Leadership

GroundBounce writes: "An article at Advogato uses the recent resignation of Christoph Pfister from the Fink project to analyze and highlight the ways in which the free software community often alienates its leaders, and the differences between the Mac shareware and the greater free software communities."

Comments

Who cares? Give it away and ignore them!

[gatkinso]

I am the pureset form of the Open Source movement.

Stallman can lick me. The FSF can go straight to h3ll. NO constraints on my software. You don't even have to keep my name on it. I note how RMS has made a nice living for himself bitching about how software should be "free" - as long as it adheres to his rules.

I write my code. I give it away. That's it. (not that I have written anything very substantial, but the point stands.)

I don't GPL it. Or put any type of "L" on it.... if M$ wants to "pirate" it and make $100 million on it - they are free to do so. If some kid wants to submit it as her CS233 project - she can knock herself out!

I take others code as well. I ignore all licenses. Implied or explict. If it is code, and I need it... I use it. For anything I want.

Like I said... free. Not as in speech. Not as in beer. But as in "free for all!"

I say ignore these people - and co-op their code.

article is troll propaganda

[Erris]

The fact that all this effort is not rewarded with money is the major shortcoming of the free software process. There have been quite a number of attempts to fix this, but few have been successful, and of those that have, most don't seem to generalize.

No, it's not about money. Those who think it is and try to squeeze money out of their neighbors by giving away booby traps are doomed to fail. Sorry, it's about sharing common tasks and making things that don't suck. Communities that are bassed on anything else will go the way of M$ eventually.

The evanescent rewards of free software are a major factor in the relatively high turnover in projects.

Not all projects have high turnover. I'll just call attention to the current drought of leaders. Many of the "big names" who would have been listed as leaders a couple of years ago are no longer very active in actual free software development, and there isn't much in the way of new blood. Thank God we've still got Linus.

Huh? What's a big name? While peer recognition is nice, once again, that's not what it's about. The folks making things like NE2000 drivers out at NASA are just as important to me as anyone else. I appreciate their efforts, but I have a small brain and I'll never be able to remember all the names. Why should I expect anything more of anyone else?

Mac OS X gives an excellent example of why leadership is so badly needed. Apple could easily have taken a leadership role, and presented a compelling vision of how software should be packaged for OS X. Instead, its own efforts are very weak. ... Apple also provides some links to Unix software, but as far as I can tell makes no effort to ensure that any of it is integrated nicely.

Apple does not seem to get it yet, and that is too bad. They have a great deal of tallent at work and they have produced some outstanding hardware. If they ever get what free sofware is all about they will sell much more of it. Perversly, by giving their users freedom they will save themselves from working for someone else, like Bill Gates. Propriatory junk never communicates well and will never "integrate". Apple is in a good position to do great things. I'm waiting for them to get it.

Re:Feedback as repayment

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an email: JAVA SUCKS