Slashdot Mirror
Batch of LinuxWorld Stories
Later today, Slashdot will be giving out its awards for
the LinuxWorld Expo- brace yourself. To help
tide you over, we have several stories about the show. The
first is from
FWMiller who sent us
a Salon Article
about the event.
TheMystic
sent us a yahoo headline page from
the show.
and Mtn_Dewd
sent us a CNN Story and
a
wired story.
Sad to see that they stuck RMS in a corner during this event. But what are they to do with him? It's like your crazy and beloved uncle.... he fought in the war, and you're proud of that, but he keeps pissing on the rug when company comes.
:-)
If he really delivers a keynote at the next LinuxWorld I bet they'll be ready with the tranquilizer darts and nets. Or they'll put him on at 3 a.m.
Poor Richard... too scary for the suits, too valuable to snub entirely...
On another note, I watched the RA of Linus's keynote. I like the fact that he says he ISN'T a visionary! He just wants to hack code, drink beer, take care of his daughters and let world domination take its natural course.
Groucho
What the heck is a sexpot and where do I get one?
(see Wired article)
Richard can walk, and he often does. Having a booth in the corner is no impediment to his larger goals, I would think.
When's the next "LinuxWorld"ish conference? Is there one somewhere in Europe?
I wouldn't mind attending, but the US is so far away.
Well, for a cause to be a good one, it must become greater than the person or group that started the cause. If he is still the forefront of free software, then either he is too powerful or the cause is weak.
I don't believe that he should be ignored, but don't let him control the whole thing. They way he dissed Mr O'Reilly pissed me off though. He was acting a little counter to his own philosophy. If you can't sell books (or services) on free software, then you put a death hold on ever making money on GPL stuff.
read her column www.examiner.com/skink
This comment from the CNN article really bothers me... This sure sounds like some guy that just wants to make a fast buck!!
All the quotes and comments from/about the Slashdot booth paint Rob & co. in a "smartass punks" kind of light. This quote, for instance: "Malda was annoyed by the constant attention of the journalists, complaining that he couldn't even find time to check email because of the persistent questions. " make it appear that you've got better things to do than talk to these people. (which you do, likely, but don't tell them that!)
Too bad they misinterpreted Nate, too... he "works for" Rob?
In any case, you guys have to be nicer to these media types... if you're gonna get press, make sure it's *good* press. Isn't Hemos supposed to be the schmooze-meister?
"I'd like to make a promise and I'd like to make a vow, that when I've got something to say, sir, I'm gonna say it now
It is interesting how much deeper the saloon article is, especially compared to the short and
shallow one on wired. From memory most of the interesting analysis has come from saloon. I guess
I've made my selection official, I deleted my wired bookmark and added saloon.
And to think at one point wired was where the exploration occurred.
err, then again I gennerally come of as one who is permenently burnt, which is about as far from the facts as possible, unfortunately.
The Net Skink is called a Sexpot (Search for Skink at www.sfgate.com). Every time I have seen Rebecca Eisenberg I have to be reminded that she went to Stanford and Harvard(or Yale) law school, and she decided that practicing law was not spiritually fulfilling, because she often comes of a completely spoiled Long Island daddies girl that drinks too much at parties.
When you say "she often comes of a completely spoiled Long Island daddies girl that drinks too much at parties" you mean that that's the personality you'd attribute to her based entirely on superficial visual cues and nothing else, right? I'll admit that I haven't read very much of her writing, but what I have read is intelligently written by someone who knows what she is talking about, or at least has bothered to do the research. I certainly can't see how you'd get such a negative impression from her writing.
You don't understand Stallman's points. RMS is one of the most consistent people I know; he never acts counter to his own philosophy. He makes his living selling services connected to free software (as a consultant), and supports others in doing the same. He does not object to the sale of books, and the sale of services is key to his philosophy as the only ethical way for programmers to make a living.
His point is that free software needs free documentation; otherwise when someone improves the program, it's illegal for them to update the book to match the changes to the program.
Now, while I respect RMS, I still own some O'Reilly books (and work on proprietary software, as well as free software).
Just the same, O'Reilly seems to be trying to take over the free software movement and to exclude anyone who thinks like RMS: just write them out of history. Did you notice the list of people invited to O'Reilly's next "summit" on "collaborative software?" All the people who talk about freedom have been banned. No RMS, no Bruce Perens, no one from Debian. Why should O'Reilly be in charge of these kinds of events and select who attends?
There is absolutely nothing in the world that prevents RMS from holding his own event if he wishes - where he decides who can attend or doesn't. WHere he foots the bill.
Y'know RMS is a big boy -- a grown up, and last time I looked had no problem at all at expressing his opinion.
Rob does have better things to do than talk to those people. Most of the trade press is clue-impaired. There are only a few journalists I can think of who consistently "get it": Andrew Leonard of Salon Magazine's "21st" section is probably the best out there, and Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News has a clue.
Notice that what these guys have in common is that commercial software companies aren't paying their bills: they write for more general-interest publications. This means they get to stay honest. Folks who write for Ziff-Davis or IDG publications are under great pressure to be whores.
I certainly hope so! I mean, "that's got to change."? What kind of craziness is that? There's a reason we call it free software (Open Source TM if you like). The whole concept is that you just give it away. There's usually the sense that you're entering into an unspoken contract in which the users of the software will also help to improve it. It's not the sort of thing that needs to be mired in red tape, all work encumbered by the energy/resource-wasting exchange of money. I've never really understood how anyone can have free software explained to them and say "I don't get it". If you explain to these same people how human beings live collectively as a society, helping one another, and receiving help in turn rather than simply living as completely independant individuals do they say "I don't get it"? Actually, they probably do.
Come to think of it, that's the problem I have with the whole "Open Source" versus "free software" thing. Open Source seems to be all business and economic exchange. All emphasis is on the benifit to the individual. Not that there isn't a benefit to the individual, but it just seems to play too much to the current US mindset (echoed worldwide) of greed above all else. Yuck, the philosophy seems to go something like: be as greedy as you can, and take as much of the pie for yourself, and growth and prosperity will be unbounded, and the marketplace, being a self-regulating system, will self regulate. Well, it's true that the market is a self regulating system in a sense. What people don't seem to realize is that this self regulation comes in a mad dance of numbers, chaotic (in the mathematical sense) dips and leaps above and below a strange attractor. Once upon a time, they called this boom and bust. This great economy we have right now... BOOM (then bust)!
I hope
I *really* wish there was a 'good' conference in Europe too. There is one in the UK sometime but I don't know when - and we don't see Linus etc.
Well, Petreley is with IDG. Been reading him for years, and I've not seen him "whore" for anyone.
Actually suprised that Sandy Reed hasn't tried to get rid of him for his IW stuff.
Finally.
correct, these were social situations where people were drinking, laughing and talking loud. It is possible that I didn't get over the leather pants, which of course says a whole lot more about me than it does about her.