Perens Discredits Mundie's Attack On GPL

SaxMan101 writes "CNET has an editorial from Bruce Perens that quite handily dismantles Mundies attack on the GPL and the Liberty Alliance. He takes the time to make YA strong argument for free software which he backs up with real numbers. Well said, worth the read."

Comments

Re:There is no such thing as free software.

[Zeinfeld]

I see I've been moderated down to flamebait. Well, it's a free country, thank God, so fine. However, read and understand.

I have noticed that a lot of the moderators who use their mod points to punish views they don't like but know people are likely to think fair will use 'overated' to mod people down. That way they reduce the risk that they will be metamoderated as 'unfair' which they know would be likely if they used 'troll' or 'flamebait'.

I think that this is basically a pretty pointless and largely ideological argument. In the one camp we have the Microsofties who don't like the idea of competing with 'free'. In the other we have the Open Sauce zealots who hate the idea of paying for anything.

As usual with idealogues, both sides are wrong. However they find plenty of followers because lots of people are lazy and would like others to do their thinking for them. Plus they have the idea that they can gain credibility and prominence by advocating the most extreeme position out there.

What I find most significant in the Perens article is that all the quotes he gives can be found in the original reports of the Mundie speech. He gives no more context than the original reports. This strikes me as a staggering coincidence, he found the exact same quotes from a 40 minute speech significant as the previous report! Was Perens present at the speech? Did he even listen to a tape of the speech? given the state of US journalism I strongly suspect that he did not and that he is not reporting on the speech, he is reporting on the reports of the speech.

OT: Your sig

[Jethro]

Killed/Injured Israel 286/1024 Palestine 1125/20,000+ [electronicintifada.net]

You know, I've been holding myself back from commenting on your signature for a long time, but I'm in a weird mood today, so what the hell.

The attitude displayed in your signature is the reason there's still a war in the middle-east. The violence will only stop when it reads:

Killed/Injured Israel Too Many/Too Many, Palestine Too Many/Too Many

Of course I don't mean you personally. When people in the middle-east start thinking this way, then maybe we'll have a chance.