Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

ESR Advocates Proprietary Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the well-not-all-the-time dept.

mvdwege writes "Apparently, Eric Raymond has decided that proprietary software is now a good thing, according to The Register. I must say it is rather revealing how easily he is willing to compromise on this particular freedom. Is his earlier vocal proclamation of the importance of freedom (still visible on his homepage) mere posturing? And if so, how about his vocal support of other freedoms?"

5 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. GNUpod, gtkpod etc. by Psionicist · · Score: 4, Informative
    "We have a serious problem. Whenever I try to pitch Linux to anyone under 30, the question I get is: 'Will it work with my iPod?," he said. "We are not yet as a community making the painful compromises need to achieve widespread desktop market share. Until we do, we will get locked out of more hardware."
    Of course it works with iPod. Take a look at:

    * GNUpod and gtkpod
    * iPod Shuffle Database Builder

    And then there's another one with a funky name I cannot remember.
  2. Re:That's not quite what he said. by Speare · · Score: 3, Informative

    What is an acronym, and what is an initialism, depends on how you pronounce it.

    NAFTA is an acronym, because you don't pronounce it En-Ay-Eff-Tee-Ay. Same for SONAR and SCUBA.

    "The ESR" would be pronounced like The Ee-Ess-Ar. Not an acronym. The ESRB, the NAACP, and OSDN are all initialisms.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  3. Re:Exactly right, this is just todays 'rant' artic by kripkenstein · · Score: 3, Informative

    We CAN'T write and distribute Free Software for most of that stuff because of patents.

    We can't write free software - but we can get multimedia stuff to work, if we pay for the license to do so. You can get your DVDs to work 'out-of-the-box' on Linux - just use Linspire. People who believe in the ideals behind Free Software won't (including me), but for those that are worried about 'losing the desktop', options are available.

    If this was the thing holding Linux back from being a massive success, Linspire would be selling millions of copies. That they aren't says something.

    (Note: I wish Linspire all the luck in the world, even though I don't use their product.)

  4. Re:ESR is not associated with Free Software moveme by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

    He wrote a few utilities and a book or two, but short of maintaining the Jargon file, it's hard to see what he did on a day to day basis that allowed him to be quite so prevelant.

    ESR's essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar inspired Netscape to open-source its browser code, which resulted in the Mozilla browser and Gecko, one of the best browser engines around. Netscape's decision in turn paved the way for open-source ventures from a number of hitherto opaque corporations. That "book or two" got quite a ball rolling. That's why ESR is so respected today.

  5. Re:Mod This Parent Up !!! by Jack+Action · · Score: 4, Informative

    The FSF is not comissioning any new large scale undertakings at the moment.

    This is just blatantly wrong.

    What do you call Gnu Flash? Other projects FSF is directing include Free Bios and an open 3D Card driver. More projects are listed here. Just like gcc was needed in the 80s, these are the utilities users need now.

    At the risk of being modded for flame bait, I'll also point out that it seems most criticisms of the FSF are based on plain ignorance.