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It's Not the 15th Birthday of Linux
Glyn Moody writes "There's been a spate of celebrations of Linux's 15th birthday recently. What they're really marking is the 15th anniversary of version 1.0. But do version numbers matter for free software? The 'release early, release often' approach means there's generally little difference between version 0.99.14z, say, and version 1.0. In fact, drawing attention to such anniversaries is misguided, because it gives the impression that free software is created in the same way as traditional proprietary code, working towards a predetermined end-point according to a top-down plan. So how should we be choosing and celebrating free software's past achievements?"
Release early, release often, release statements of current functionality. Seriously, no non-geek is going to be installing software that isn't test by some bff geek anyway. So release early and often so the geeks can help guide its direction and give feedback.
Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
Christmas is based on non-Christian traditions that were absorbed by Christianity because they could not get people to stop celebrating them.
Although that's true, you're glossing over a little history there. The church couldn't get the countryfolk to stop celebrating Saturnalia, Solistice, etc. so they simply scheduled a Christian service for the same time, and anyone who didn't show up was subject to sanctions (note the root of that word, eh?) up to and including being burned at the stake as a pagan idolater.
Hahahaha! My captcha is "oppress"! Jung wins again!
This is true, I am a Christian and the fact is Jesus was probably not born on Dec 25th does not bother me no more than birthdays of various people (such as Washington's birthday being celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February. As long as its celebrated that's all that matters....he could have been born then but probably not. In around 350 ad, Pope Julius declared that it would be celebrated on December 25. This was to make it easier on the Romans who celebrated their pagan winter solstice holiday on that day...it was called Yule...and this is where the word yuletide came from that is often used to relate to Christmas songs :).
Slight misrepresentation there. "They" just the Emperor Constantine, and any sanctions would have been for insurrection or sedition, not for paganism. After all, he's the one, along with Licinius, who signed the Edict of Milan, guaranteeing religious (though apparently not atheistic) freedom across the empire -- and anyway, the pagans were having a party then, as required.
By the way, your etymology of "sanction" seems to be back to front. It's more likely that the meaning of "decree" led to the ecclesiastical derivatives ("sanctified", "saint" etc) than the other way around.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
First off there is no such thing as atheism, there's sanity and insanity, the latter of course comes in many flavors. I'm saying this because we only tolerate fictional truth (please don't give me any bullshit about the Bible being scientifically liable in any way what so ever) when it comes to religion, and we tolerate religion because of the magnitude. If you compare the symptoms of schizophrenia to the behaviour of religious people you'd find many, many similarities. I'm not pulling this out of my ass, I actually did research on this a few years back.
This been said there are no facts about a person that remotely fits the description of "Jesus", and the only real documentation we have is the Bible, written several hundred years after his alleged death. So what makes you so sure that this person existed? Because everyone says so or because you have solid proof? We both know the answer. I cannot say for certain that he didn't exist, I cannot say for certain that God doesn't exist. I cannot say for certain that Santa exists. But I refuse to believe just because I don't know. It doesn't help me sleep better at night or accept death, which has been feared by mankind since his birth. We don't say this out loud because our mothers, friends, cousins, colleagues etc. are religious.
My point is, let's say hypothecially that one day doctors prove that religious behaviour is a mental illness. What do you think would happen? Do you think everyone would just accept this fact and live on with their lives, but now without faith? Of course not, which means that it's a dead end filled with controversy, because "god" forbid us ever challenging the beliefs and rationalization methods of our fellow peers.
Now if you still insist that Jesus did exist I would very much like to know what makes you so sure.
I am the lawn!