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FSFE President Urges Community To Strengthen Open Source As a Brand

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the someone-better-tackle-stallman dept.

Georg Greve, founder and president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), has an insightful look at FOSS from a brand perspective with urgings that the community come together and strengthen open source as a unified brand. "There are plenty of false enemies to go around. Ironically, the most common form of false enemy is found around the animosity that has built around branding and framing issues, more specifically in the area of 'Free Software' vs 'Open Source.' Name-calling and quarreling on either side is not helpful, and serves to hide the common base and interest in having a strong brand and powerful message. The historical facts around Free Software are well documented and available to anyone who wishes to look them up. But instead of focusing on past insults and wrongs, I believe our focus should be on the future. We should realize that what divides us pales in comparison to what we have in common and that division and exclusion are harmful to us all. So we should rein in the name-callers on either side, and empower those people who know how to build cooperation, corporations, and positive feedback loops."

9 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Pfah. by guyminuslife · · Score: 5, Funny

    Refrain from name-calling? What an idiot.

    --
    I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    1. Re:Pfah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Wow- this article reads like an Obama speech. Coincidence?

    2. Re:Pfah. by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Funny

      How appropriate, you fight like a cow!

      So? You fight like a farmer. ;-)

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  2. I'd love to.. by JonJ · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hear RMS' take on this. :D

    --
    -- Linux user #369862
    1. Re:I'd love to.. by JonJ · · Score: 2, Funny

      I rarely get a shot at this. But here goes:

      ---> Joke

          o
         /|\     <- You
         / \

      --
      -- Linux user #369862
  3. Ribbon! by torreja · · Score: 2, Funny

    We need a Ribbon!

  4. The reign in Spain by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

    So we should reign in the name-callers on either side, and empower those people who know how to build cooperation, corporations, and positive feedback loops.

    Can we also empower those people who know the difference between the words "reign", meaning the possession of power or authority, and "rein", which is the strap that you use to control a horse?

    Then maybe we could rein in some of the worst abuses of the English language.

  5. Loosely translated... by TrebleJunkie · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Somebody please tell RMS to StFU."

    --

    Ed R.Zahurak

    You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.

  6. Re:The Meaning Of "Free" by maxume · · Score: 2, Funny

    If I had mod points, I would mod him Goddamn-dirty-longhair.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.