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Torvalds vs Schwartz GPL Wars

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the which-one-is-han-solo dept.

javipas writes "The controversial message published by Linus Torvalds (mirrored) in the Linux Kernel Mailing List was from the beginning to the end an open attack to Sun and its Open Source strategy. Linus criticized Sun's real position on GPL, and claimed that Linux could be dangerous to Sun. Upon his words, "they may be talking a lot more [about Open Source] than they are or ever will be doing." Jonathan Schwartz's blog has been updated today with a post that is a direct response to Linus claims, but in a much more elegant and coherent way. Sun's CEO notes that "Companies compete, communities simply fracture", and tries to explain why using GPL licenses is taking so long."

4 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. It's flame time by vivaoporto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is nothing like media pitting two public figures against one another and, consequently, pitting supporters and detractors against each other, in order to generate some cheap polemic to exploit for some 15 minutes. Nothing to see here, move along.

    1. Re:It's flame time by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is nothing like media pitting two public figures against one another

      I know, this is obviously going to drive Paris back to page 7 of the tabloids. We'll just have to suffer through the 24/7 news coverage on all the cable news channels until this explosive story dies out. I feel bad for Torvalds and Schwartz for having to put up with the constant paparazzi swarming around them, but if you live so much in the public eye like them it's something you just have to deal with.

    2. Re:It's flame time by 2short · · Score: 5, Insightful


      There's no flaming in either post, nor really much at all in Schwartz's.

      Someone on the LKML was talking about how Sun says lots of nice things about what their going to do with open source. Linus said essentially, "Looking at their history, they say lots of nice things, but only do anything substantive when it's in their self interest, as you'd expect."

      Then Schwartz responded by.... saying lots of nice things.

  2. communities what? by MrKaos · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Companies compete, communities co-operate.

    It remains to see who participates and the nature of the co-operation. Sun contributing Java, even for cynical reasons, says more about Open Source as an evolving business model than a fracturing community.

    And so what if it fractures anyway, maybe that makes software evolve in a more "natural" way.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.