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O'Reilly Linux Conference CFP
Matt Welsh (who is probably not
coincidentally program chair...) wrote in with a call for papers for the upcoming O'Reilly Linux Conference. It looks like a cool conference, almost a Linux
Expo of the west (in August): two days of tutorials, followed by two days of a multi-track conference. They also will have evening "breakaway sessions"
for special interest groups (sorta like BOFs, it seems). I actually may submit a paper...
Another conference being held in the west. Check here for more info.
So how does Tim O'Reilly - a millionaire who has made his money selling propriatary software (books mostly) - get off claiming to be this great leader of the free software movement? He's just an opportunist out to scam a buck.
Tim O'Reilly pays Larry Wall's salary. If that's not a significant contribution to this movement, WHAT IS?
putting a cork in wall's mouth, that's what is.
Wow...mind melt. You tell 'em, brother.
He encourages people to sell books; but he insists that the "primary technical documentation" of free software must be free (in the sense of being licensed through a GPL-style license).
His position on intellectual property in general is slightly less fervently articulated...
Tim tries to claim leadership in the "let's make
money" branch of free(speech) software.
This is a legitimate area to be expanded, and Tim does
do quite a bit of work to help this (Perl/Win integration,
summits, conferences). Nobody has to follow where
he leads if they don't want (in particular his
last Perl conference was a little steep in price).
i may have misunderstood all of this in a real big way; all corrections are welcome.
Since O'Reilly specializes in non-free books on free software, RMS considers O'Reilly an impediment to the movement.
Since he says so in public, you can be fairly certain that Mr. O'Reilly is not going to invite RMS to his conference.
RMS publishes books -- just not through o'reilly.
cynical (and probably dead wrong) interpretation: give tim a cut of the profits if you want him to like you
more plausible interpretation: there must be other reasons; IIRC last time around they snubbed stallman 'cause he'd been kicking about the whole thing getting too PHB-friendly. basically, the rest of these guys are willing to compromise with the market to some extent, and stallman ain't. i'm not sure stallman is happy with this gimmick of calling it "open source".
the question is: is it more important to keep free software perfectly free, or to achieve world domination even if that means maybe backing off a little?
>yeah, okay, [RMS is] hard for these guys to push around and mold to their agenda. cry me a river.
Um, if you're complaining that O'Reilly isn't inviting RMS everywhere, aren't you the one crying the river?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Unfortunately, much of the software which Larry writes (such as the Java / Perl interface) is now hoarded by O'Reilly, instead of being free software. It is arguable that O'Reilly is hurting free software by employing Larry.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
RMS believes that manuals for free software must themselves be free, so that those who change and improve the software can keep the manuals current. Since O'Reilly specializes in non-free books on free software, RMS considers O'Reilly an impediment to the movement.
Since he says so in public, you can be fairly certain that Mr. O'Reilly is not going to invite RMS to his conference.
First, it's hypocrite. Dammit.
Second, I would love to read *anything* on Slashdot where Tim O'Reilly gets mentioned and some knee-jerk flamer doesn't immediately start in with the "money" is evil stuff.
After all, Stallman accepted a large award from the MacArthur foundation for the concept of the FSF. That's certainly making money off of free software.
Additionally, Tim O'Reilly pays Larry Wall's salary. If that's not a significant contribution to this movement, WHAT IS?
Very cool spot. I went to a conference there last November. On Tuesday they close down the streets around there and have a big bazaar thing in the middle of town. Pretty interesting. Wish I could go...
If anyone is thinking about writing a linux driver, get "Linux Device Drivers". This is quite possibly the highest quality book I have ever gotten. It contains virtually everything you need. No, I don't work for Oreily but this is just a teriffic book.
The Perl book with the camel is also excellent.