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Bruce Perens Tells Linus Torvalds To Cool It
Eh-Wire writes "Bruce Perens has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Andrew Trigdell's attempt to 'reverse engineer' the proprietary Bitkeeper code management software of Larry McVoy and the ensuing fallout with Linus Torvalds. Not only does he tell Linus Trovalds to 'Cool it!' he also suggests, 'Larry sees conspiracies that don't exist.' Sounds like Bruce is a bit worked up about this."
After TheRegister made up Linus' previous quotes, I'm not sure how am I going to read quotes like "There are times when Linus Torvalds can be a real idiot, and this is one of these times".
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
... the Register doesn't need any help being discredited.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Let me see if I can get this right:
Tridgell, pushing his own agenda, screws up Linus's very happy Bitkeeper deal.
Linus gets upset for this and speaks his mind. Note that Tridgell doesn't complains because he has gotten his way.
Perens calls Linus an idiot for being upset. He calls Larry names for being upset that he is upholding his side of the deal and others aren't.
Someone should tell zealots like Perens that in the real world, people compromise so everyone can be happy. Also that there is nothing wrong with with proprietary or comercial software. If it didn't exist free software would have nothing to 'libarate'.
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He's a bigwig CS type, like McKusic and Allman.
He now sucknix.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This whole subject comes from The Register, which is known to say things that are, shall we say, highly interpretive.
I'm take the whole thing with a large landfill of salt.
As I said, Linus does do some stuff wrong of a time.
But Bruce is no man to criticise.
The BitKeeper license states that you cannot use BitKeeper to reverse engineer
it and therefore create derivative products. Andrew Tridgell *DID* use it because
he was prodding it to get the wire protocol. You don't have to be creating
software with it to do that.
The fact is that he was working for OSDL, which licensed the software for obvious
reasons, and the license states (and pretty much every law in every country in
the world will uphold) that OSDL are responsible for upholding the license with
respect to their employees or subcontractors.
BK definitely is suitable for Linux development at Linus' end, despite "concensus"
of a bunch of hippies. "Linus uses it and doesn't listen to anyone else on the
subject" kind of quotes piss me off - why shouldn't Linus dictate the development
model and practise of HIS project? I don't see *ANY* part of the GPL or any other
license that relinquishes project management to a free-not-beer committee rather
than the original developer or stipulates that no commercial software ever be
used to promote development of GPL software.
Linus is right in this instance. Bruce is wrong AS USUAL.
Neko
Last year, I had to see my preferred political candidate for president lose the race all because he made the fatal mistake of expressing enthusiam during a political speech in Iowa. Boy, he was an idiot for doing that. Not like that great thinker GW Bush, and all the brilliant things he's said. Or that superior thinker, John Kerry, who knew never to express an opinion on anything other than he's a better candidate than GWB. Or fight back hard when slandered by a bunch of political operators like the "Swift Boat Veterans".
The lesson to be learned here is that anyone can be portrayed to look like an idiot. It doesn't mean they are. More important, one must closely observe what the pack of jackals say. Then you have to be able to discern the untruths and misreprentations. Then realize what are the consequences.
Realize that F/OSS is a philosophy. It stops being a philosophy and starts being an ideology when its proponent try to coerce their views on people with a different philosophy. Much like how people think the U.S. must conform to a Fundamentalist Christian value set. (After all, is it wrong to value life? Or the gov't showing respect to the Christian God? Aren't public schools denying religion by not permitting a Christian prayer in class? Or teaching something we don't believe because its relies on scientific research and methodology for its arguments?)
The key thing here is observe the positions that F/OSS zealots take, and the tactics they employ.
The problem here was that quite a few, if not the majority, of developers did not want to use BK and chose not to use BK. It did not prevent them from making contributions to kernel development. So how did Torvalds compel developers, against their will, to adopt a tool?
But as Torvalds points out here, its baseless. But gee, it sounds real scary, doesn't it. And who cares if its claptrap? So many Slashdotters think its the reason why Torvalds was an idiot to adopt a proprietary tool!
That's because F/OSS zealots Orlowski and Perens prefer to misrepresent Torvalds' position. Torvalds does not attack reverse-engineering, he attacks Tridgell for messing up his agreement with McVoy WITHOUT PROVIDING AN ALTERNATIVE.
Tridgell is not "literally not allowed to reply". He will not lose his job if he replies. Tridgell merely does not have the character to publicly defend his beliefs if it will result a (miniscule) risk to his financial wellbeing. (But he's more than happy to dismiss McVoy's concerns towards his financial wellbeing when he conducts his reverse-engineering activities.)
But perhaps Perens is right. Linus is being severely unfair, the way people are being unfair about commenting on Scott Pedersen during his trial, and Michael Jackson during his trial. This world is ridden with filthy, unethical people. Oh wait, Tridgell is not actually under indictment. I guess Torvalds should respect Tridgell's reputation and desire to protect his financial welfare after Tridgell screwed Torvalds' deal with McVoy, and gladly suffer the glaring misrepresentations made by Perens and his ilk. (See Swift Boat Veterans.) Oh yes, the hypocrisy!
Folks, its really simple. F/OSS ze
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon