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Linus Is A Hero
oever writes "The dutch broadcaster KRO has chosen 365 modern saints or heros. One of them is Linus Torvalds, chosen for his work in on Linux and 'Open Source'. Too bad RMS or Saint Ignuciuis he wasn't chosen, even though he was recommended."
Linus could have built Linux on that other free compiler and UNIX toolchain. Er... I guess there was no other one.
Oh my lord... what were they think...err, drinking?
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
"One of them is Linus Torvalds, chosen for his work in on Linux and 'Open Source'. Too bad RMS or Saint Ignuciuis he wasn't chosen, even though he was recommended."
The reason for the overlooking of the real developers of Linux such as RMS is the same reason as Tim Berners-Lee is credited with "inventing" the internet, when obvious evidence suggests otherwise. The American public is, at the base, ignorant of computers.
They think it is possible for only one person to invent the Internet, when geeks like us know the underlying protocols demand more than one inventor.
It is the same way with Linus and RMS, with RMS creating most of the base for Linux, but since Linus was the original bootloader writer, people assume he "invented" Linux, while overlooking the more important luminaries.
I beg to differ. Sure, Flash can be annoying but so can yellow text on a pink background. There's a time and a place for Flash; just because something has the capacity to be used for Evil(TM) doesn't mean it has no legitimate applications.
Flash is a tool, it is not in itself evil or good. I mean sure, flash brings us crap like well, the ads on www.weather.com.
It also brings us www.homestarrunner.com.
If you think I'm going to give up strongbad's e-mail in order to "unchoke the flow of free information" or to get rid of a few ads you've got another thing coming. Besides flash works on almost any device so I don't see how it chokes the flow, if it can flow anywhere.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Hey, they don't smoke crack in the Netherlands!
They smoke weed!
It's the classic case of a guy who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut.
He'd garner far more respect for his technical contributions if he didn't make us accept his ravings^H^H^H^H^H^Hextreme socio-political opinions as a baseline for talking to him.
Fair or not, RMS the extremist cannot be separated from RMS the coder. And that limits the appeal of RMS the coder.
Why focus on Linus in this story? Tim Berners-Lee is deservedly in the same list. If Linus is a Saint, Tim must be the Pope.
His post was dead on. Yours is the one that resorted to invective and name-calling because you weren't able to respond intelligently to his points.
Stallman's contributions made the free software movement possible. As is stated below, he invented the wheel and gave it away for free. How exactly has Stallman hurt free software? The GNU license is its greatest protector. Unfortunately those who stands by their convictions are often labeled as crazy by those who disagree with them. Such is the case here.
I think we will find that history will treat Richard Stallman more kindly than he is treated in many contemporary fora. His concept is built to last. (Side note for you Ayn Rand fans-- I was in a conversation where someone asked "Who is the Howard Roark of the software world?". After Bill Gates was shot down, I found some consensus with RMS)
BTW what free software do _you_ use?
Acquiescence leads to obliteration
A lot of U.S. posters seem to be upset that they don`t recognise all the names on the list - well I`m sure other countries find U.S. news items rather insular as well. Just depends where you`re coming from.