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Will Stallman Kill the "Linux Revolution?"
frdmfghtr writes "The October 30 issue of Forbes Magazine has an article speculating that Richard Stallman's efforts to rewrite the GPL could threaten to 'tear it apart.' The article describes how the GPLv3 is expected to be incompatible with the GPLv2, causing trouble for Linux vendors such as Novell and Red Hat. The article wraps it up: 'And a big loser, eventually, could be Stallman himself. If he relents now, he likely would be branded a sellout by his hard-core followers, who might abandon him. If he stands his ground, customers and tech firms may suffer for a few years but ultimately could find a way to work around him. Either way, Stallman risks becoming irrelevant, a strange footnote in the history of computing: a radical hacker who went on a kamikaze mission against his own program and went down in flames, albeit after causing great turmoil for the people around him.'"
Forbes is porn for rich people. They're best known for their Pro SCO Group stance.
Linux needs to get its act together
/tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3. That's all there is to it!"
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare.
Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".
Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration issues. Example comments:
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Linux?"
Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Windows?"
Zealot: "Oh God, I had to install Quake 3 in Windoze for some lamer friend of mine! God, what a fucking mess! I put in the CD and it took about 3 minutes to copy everything, and then I had to reboot the fucking computer! Jesus Christ! What a retarded operating system!"
So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards Windows.
PS eric your calculator emulators are breaching copyright law. I hope HP sues you into the ground.
A bit of MIT/LCS lore here.
RMS used to live on the 7th floor of LCS. That's where he used to have his office before he resigned in protest over the commercialization of something or another. But they let him keep his office, and he lives there, because he refuses to have an apartment. (Given the rent rates in Cambridge, the assholeness of most landlords, I don't blame him. Rather than live in my office, I chose to move to Texas, and the change in rent rates and lack of state income tax resulted in an immediate %25 pay raise. RMS doesn't have that option because we have the death penalty for people like him down here.)
Anyway, RMS has or had a number or geek chick groupies. I wouldn't call any of the ones I've seen "hot", really -- well except for this one little psycho jewish undergrad from NYC. He would sleep with them on the sofa in his office. That's why he got kicked out off floor 7, and down to the 3 floor, is that the cleaning staff complained about pulling used condoms out from behind the sofas. No joke. You can use this information for trolling if you wish, but it's all true.
RMS has a phobia of water that prevents him from showering. This is part of this post I know from first hand experience, because I myself have observed him taking a sponge bath in the 3d floor mens room in LCS. Apparently once he had a girlfriend who he was totally in love with, and she convinced him to take one shower a week. It was a traumatic experience for him each time.
RMS also has a phobia of spider plants. When RMS starts bothering a grad student and going to his office and talking to him constantly and getting him to spend all his time writing free software, the grad student will complain to someone on the floor, and they'll let them in on the secrete -- get a spider plant in your office. The next time RMS drops by, his eyes will bulge a little and he'll say " Umm. . . I wanted to talk to you about hacking some elisp code . . . why don't you stop by my office sometime ?" and make a hasty exit.
One of his more nasty habits is picking huge flakes of dandruff out of his hair while talking to you. At least he doesn't eat them, like some people I know.
Now, I know everyone loves to make fun of RMS, and I'm feeding that a bit here, so I'd just like to say that I think he really is a genius, on the order of Socrates (another filthy slob who couldn't keep a normal living arrangement, and lived in a barrel) or Ghandi or Ezekiel. Everything he has ever said to me, while sounding naive and idealistic and stupid at the time, turned out to later be correct.
The only thing I fear in his philosophy is his interest in reducing population growth. Everyone else I know of who was obsessed with that "problem" turned out to have facist or totolitarian tendencies, and I think that the problem will solve itself as more and more of the world moves into a middle class type existence.
But on everything else, bitter experiences have taught me he is right. I will not use any non-GPLd or lGPLd software, and I look forward to being able to buy only "open" hardware. I would like to see software patents completely eliminated, and with the development of digitial communication, I see no reason why shouldn't simply repeal all of Title 17 and do away with all copyrights. They just aren't needed. I expect to spend much of my life being paid to write software, and I just don't see copyrights has helping me in anyway.
I just want to say one thing: Mr. Richard Stallman is full of angst and passion and venom. In the text that follows, when I quote from Stallman, I will use the word "excrement" in place of another word which is now apparently permitted in general circulation publications and which I have edited out. Although the proper definition of "photodisintegration" is hotly disputed, he is locked into his present course of destruction. He does not have the interest or the will to change his fundamentally lubricious obiter dicta. Think of all the lives that could be saved if we would just comment on a phe
He like starts foaming the mouth when he talks about GNU being a recursive acronym. if i ever met the guy i'd be hesitant to mention the HURD project in fears he might pee on the floor over excitement.
Plus he's a zealot. Zealots don't help the appearance of the overall movement because they cannot see anything else besides their own narrow view. He pretty much things anyone who does't use linux ("ITS GNU/LINUX!", Stahlman foams) is a retard. Not arguing, but why should anyone try to listen to anyone who is so arrogant and fervently devoted to doing things the hard way.
JediLuke
-Do or Do Not, There is no Try
The article, while biased, does get something right: Stallman IS a loose cannon, more interested in fanaticism and self-agrandizement than progress. A pox on all the developers who signed over their rights to this clown. A despot touting populism is still a despot.
If Stallman wsn't such an intellectual lightweight, he could resolve the conflicts between concerned entities.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
The BSD lets you do what you want, while the GPL license defines Stallman's personal definition of "free" and then imposes it on you, which isn't freedom at all. People want to impose their ideologies on other people and call it free.
"Sufferin' succotash."
FreeBSD oopses when you 'hotplug' USB devices at the wrong time and thrashes your data if you lose power at the wrong time (oh, that's right, use SCSI), one of NetBSD's founders just came out and said the project is doomed, DragonflyBSD is an effort at a massive rewrite in early stages (certainly unsafe for production) and OpenBSD is driven by a raving loonie.
/real/ technical advantages, is more portable than NetBSD, performs better cross-spectrum than any of the BSDs, and it's all in one convenient package with tons of corporate backing!
By contrast, Linux has
Anyone who moves from a superior solution to an inferior one over a pointless licensing debate is nuts.
As opposed to Slashdot, which never tries to influence its readers, ever. By the way, the iPod is lame and has less space than a nomad, people who "steal" GPL code are "thieves," and it's not theft to pirate music and not pay artists because the RIAA are bad guys who dare to protect their own copyrights using the legal system (The horror! The outrage!).
"Sufferin' succotash."
He's got to be hardcore and stick it to the man, like his hero Hugo Chavez.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
That said, I think that people with a view like Linus set a far better long term path than those like Stallman. The GNU project has made good software, but the focus it places on fighting a nonexistent enemy is silly. The desire to make good software is going to "show the way" in the OSS world, not Free Software idealism.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
>Linus can't see medium/longterm about this. Also, he doesn't seem to be really understanding the v3.
No one clearly understands the GPL, it's designed to be unclear. This give RMS the ultimate power to interpret it as he sees fit. Even RMSs interpretations of the GPL are deeply contested, how is Linus (or anyone) supposed to do better.
I think it is accurate though.
No, it is not accurate. Stallman wants to encourage person A (Linus) to reduce the freedom of person B (a hardware manufacturer) in order to increase the freedom of person C (a hardware purchaser). He is not trying to increase the amount of freedom in the world. He is trying to shift it from the people he doesn't like to the people he does like. Congratulations to Linus for not trying to play God.
Hey linux fags, like being fucked up the ass? fucking dirty little faggots. like sucking those dicks? i know you do.
I think that one works along the lines of "They're not people since they don't worship God, so it's not murder". Not that it's an excuse.
What is the difference between killing a child at random and then killing a child just because he was born under the wrong people? (aka your enemy)
Or killing it just because you were to lazy to strap on your condom. I think we educated and civilized people do that all the time....