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The Collaborative Software Community Awarded
Andy Tai
writes "InfoWorld awards the "Collaborative Software
Community" (including the Free Software/Open Source community)
the Industry Achievement award for 1998. O'Reilly accepts the award on the behalf of the community. Nick Petreley names many important people of Free Software in his award story, including RMS, Linus, ESR, Larry Wall, John Ousterhout, Alan Cox, Jon (maddog) Hall, Robert Young, Jeremy Allison, etc."
Suppose this should be in the same article as the next one,
but hey, they're both important. They can each have their
own story today.
It is wrong to mention RMS's name in
the second tier ("also deserve mention").
Tom Paquin's name came in the first list
but not RMS's! That's not right!
I guess Petreley was afraid of anti-RMS
crowd. Give the man his due even if you
don't agree with him totally.
All I can say is thank god it wasn't ESR.
I don't think he was. He was recongnized in the column. Not everyone can be in the first paragraph, or be the first mentioned. You're being a nit-picker.
As for Petreley being afraid of Anti-RMS folks, you have obviousely never been to one of the forums, with the #1 anti-RMS, anti-GPL, anti-Linux advocates Brett Glass trolling in every single Linux related forum.
He wasn't afraid to write about MS when it was not the thing to do, and I think he's probably not afraid of anyone else in the software tech world. Why should he be?
O'Reilly, often touted as a pillar of support for UNIX and OSS, produces a commercial web server software package (Website Pro) which runs only on NT. Strange if you ask me, that they would be chosen to represent the OSS community at large.
Begging your pardon, but code released under GPL for *whatever* reason becomes the property of the collective. In a strict sense, you _are_ "helping write the GNU system".
Didn't you read "The GNU Manifesto" before you used the GPL?
They *are* the poster-child for the Open Source(tm) movement. They're making big money off of Open Source(tm), by selling manuals for cryptic Open Source(tm) bloatware.
They *are not* speaking for the Free Software movement.
The Free Software people are just tolerating the Open Source(tm) movement for now. Politics makes for strange bedpartners.
What's your gripe with O'Reilly?
... or YOU ?
Perhaps you think ESR was better suited with his ego the size of the Jupiter.
Depending on how you count it, I run 2% to 20% GNU software. That is not anywhere near enough to make me let him fuck up the nice "Linux" name.
Well, you also run less than 20% "Linux" software. The Linux kernel makes up an extremely small portion of your operating system, so it's even more ludicrous to call the entire OS "Linux" than it would be to call the entire OS "GNU."
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I love O'Reilly and really think they are a great company. But, are they really the spokescompany of the Open Source Revolution, per se?
I'm sorta sketchy on their involvement in the whole thing. I love their books, but I kinda wonder about them sometimes.
I'm still trying to figure out why O'Reilly would be accepting the award. It's very ironic.
Bruce Perens
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I disagree, I think RMS most definitely needs to be mentioned. You can make a very convincing argument that Linux would not be anywhere it is today without RMS, because without RMS we wouldn't have the GPL nor the GNU tools. The GPL and GNU software are a major foundation of Linux and its success.
Think about it: RMS embodies a culture of sharing, of openness, that most good hackers and programmers that I've met share. Not everyone is as extreme as RMS, but most programmers that truly love programming for its own sake understand where he's coming from. RMS has helped kept this tradition alive. You don't have to be as extreme as he is, but his extreme views are necessary because overall they inspire people to be more open and collaborative than they would otherwise.
Even if you disagree with him philosophically, technically RMS is responsible for GNU, and that in and of itself is a remarkable achievement. Without GNU, Linux just wouldn't have made it this far so fast. Heck forget Linux; GNU's contribution (and thus RMS') to UNIX software development is immense.
I understand why people have a problem with him---I've worked with him in the past, and I've seen his stuborness firsthand---but I definitely think RMS is not only one of the great hackers of our time, but also one of the great philosophical contributors of our time (w.r.t software). It is important not to understimate how significant the GPL, and his resulting push for GNU software, has been to the advancement of Linux in particular and software development in general.
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In a real emergency, we would have all fled in terror, and you would not have been notified.