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The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time
Joe Barr writes "NewsForge is carrying a story by Richard Stallman which blasts Sun's recent Java move, claiming it is deceptive and self-serving, makes Java neither free nor even open source, and leaves him wondering why it has attracted so much attention."
But I don't think he has Asperger's.
(The title of this post is a reference to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a curiously popular work of young adult fiction about an autistic boy.)
And even if he did, there's no reason to make meanspirited jokes like the title. Asperger's is a serious condition that's ruined the quality of life of a close relative; he's profoundly depressed, close to unemployable, and has no real friends. It's the last thing I'd wish on anybody.
(And if you are going to make meanspirited jokes about it, mention Groklaw.)
The FLOSS movement has reached a critical stage where it has replaced charismatic leadership and spiritual leaders with tangible and successful projects.
When those projects are hampered by a non-Free license, it is actually big news when extremely useful non-Free software is made compatible with those projects. That's big news, especially with something as important as Java.
Now, does that mean that Java falls under Stallman's banner of FLOSS? Not quite, but the question isn't how free Java is, but how important is Stallman's opinion to the movement and how important is he to the movement anymore?
Nobody gives a shit what you think, you've got a beard.
Isn't it about time this ageing whining hippy retired to a commune
somewhere? He does nothing but complain about what companies do
no matter what. What does he expect? Them to give everything away for
free just because its part of Richard Stallmans ideology and Richard
Stallman thinks he's God in the open source movement? How does he expect
them to make a profit... oh wait, he's a communist anyway , profit is a Bad Thing.
Its time someone quietly took him aside , gave him a nice warm blanket
and a mug of horlicks and stuck him in front of a Altair and let him
get on with it. Meanwhile the rest of the world can get on with the business
of dealing with reality.
Java is already open, as open as it is usefull to the open source community. it is not as open as stallman's dogma says it is desired, but that is another matter.
To many in the open source community, it could be far more useful if it were more open. You do not speak for the open source community or me in any way, as you parrot Sun's tired old excuses and whining for better acceptance without being willing to do what it takes.