So what if people envy him? He's extremely rich and powerful. Envy is natural.
But it is you who brings up envy in this discussion, and unfortunately it has nothing to do with the argument.
You have yet to explain how he deserves what he has.
This is not like a poker game. In a poker game, all the players start off equal. Gates had a father in a position of power and influence. Gates ' company has been found guilty of law-breaking. In a poker game, cheats don't win.
People who play by the rules, very cleverly, do. But cheats are not wanted.
Furthermore, your analogy implies you think it's all a big game. Let's see. If the game is, first person to kill kz45 get's to fuck his mother, do I deserve to fuck her when I fill your head full of lead?
The point of that last paragraph is not to troll or insult you, but to demonstrate, albeit in an extreme way, that sometimes the rules of the game are not fair.
1. Tux will fly
To this day flightless like other penguins, Linux mascot Tux will shake the world by flying into the Eiffel Tower, prompting a renewal of the 'war on terrorism'.
2. Slashdot will be free of trolls
CmdrTaco will utter the regexp to end all regexps, and the lameness filter will finally work. Forever.
3. RMS installs Windows
RMS, leader of the Free World, will renounce GNU purity and follow the temptations of Microsoft by installing Windows 2.0. From the horses mouth: "Freeware like GNU just doesn't cut it when stacked up against real software made by real programmers with fat wallets. It's a moral choice really - the corporations deserve our dollars. Freedom shmeedom."
Perhaps it's a bad business model. That would be a valid comment. But no, you were whinging about being asked to contribute to Gnome financially, when KDE doesn't ask this. You were wrong, and irrelevant simultaneously.
Except for many people one of the neat things about Free Software is you don't end up with boxes and old CDs clittering up your limited available storage space, along with the environmental problems that go hand in hand with putting bits onto plastic in boxes made of wood, with manuals made of wood. All I need is that wire that goes from my firewall out through the front wall.
A missionary is not just someone on a mission, it is someone who is sent on a mission
Merriam webster disgrees. Missionary: a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission.
You should be able to see the parallel between religion and the feelings that drive people to write Free Software. Think of all the times you've read the phrase "linux zealot" in this forum.
Anyway, I wasn't trying to say that "missionary" was the perfect word to describe Free Software developers. I admit it's not. It's a damn sight better than "hobbyist" though.
You're right, they do it for something much more serious than that: fun
"Fun" can be interpreted in many different ways. Some people do they're paying dayjob for "fun" (Bill G doesn't have to work any more, does he?). Saying that you are doing something for fun is not the same as saying you are a "hobbyist".
until you make your living from it, you're a hobbyist
So Einstein was a hobbyist. And so's Bill Gates. Yes, he gets paid, no it's not his "living", he already has that.
That letter indicated a low level of seriousness relative to a shrink-wrapped closed-source software shop, too.
You've never read an EULA, then, or attempted to get support for shrink-wrapped software.
Einstein did science for a living, therefore he was a professional scientist.
Please, at least get your facts right. Einstein was a patent clerk. He did his science in his "spare time".
If missionaries never gave up, the Spanish Inquisition would still be going on
As I've said, I know the word "missionary" is not perfect. The word "amateur" is in fact the correct word, but thanks to the sustained badmouthing by "professionals", the word now has the same connotations as your "hobbyist". So I still think "missionary" is the more fitting title.
So they're not doing something in their free time for pleasure?
That's right, missionaries are doing it because they believe it's the right thing to do.
Yes, there are some who do it 'for pleasure'. But, even for them, the word 'hobbyist' is a bad choice. Check out the Merriam Webster definition of 'hobby':
a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.
The Abiword developers are not doing Abiword for relaxation!
The word 'hobby' indicates a low level of seriousness. Your argument (and similar arguments of others here) depends on this nuance of meaning. I hereby declare it null and void.
Amateur. There's a good word that's been destroyed by professionals trying to boost their profit margins. Einstein was an amateur scientist. Unfortunately (thanks to the professionals) many people take from the word 'amateur' the same sense as the word 'hobbyist'. It leaves us short of things to call people like him - so I call them missionaries, because they're on a mission.
Of course, there are incompetent missionaries just as there are incompetent professionals. But missionaries are not about to give up. Professionals will leave you in the lurch when they smell profit elsewhere.
I hope these ideas don't appear completely alien to you.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think you read the page, because I don't think you are able to read.
Please read this
Just goes to show: low UID != high IQ.
Damn, I should have noticed that you post at 0, now I see why.
So what if people envy him? He's extremely rich and powerful. Envy is natural.
But it is you who brings up envy in this discussion, and unfortunately it has nothing to do with the argument.
You have yet to explain how he deserves what he has.
This is not like a poker game. In a poker game, all the players start off equal. Gates had a father in a position of power and influence. Gates ' company has been found guilty of law-breaking. In a poker game, cheats don't win.
People who play by the rules, very cleverly, do. But cheats are not wanted.
Furthermore, your analogy implies you think it's all a big game. Let's see. If the game is, first person to kill kz45 get's to fuck his mother, do I deserve to fuck her when I fill your head full of lead?
The point of that last paragraph is not to troll or insult you, but to demonstrate, albeit in an extreme way, that sometimes the rules of the game are not fair.
Bill Gates got what he has by doing what he has done within the environment he found himself in.
To say that he deserves what he got presupposes two things:
Both of these are currently very much in doubt.
So, perhaps he didn't deserve what he got, whatever you or anyone else has to say about it.
To stereotype as envious everyone who feels there is injustice in the world is to contribute to that injustice.
Hehe!
I liked O Xymoron's enthusiastic response:
On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> this is more than 6 million context switches per second!
Everyone knows scheduling is boring.
:)
Any manager who wastes his company's time/money by having HR do initial screenings for him isn't worth working for.
But some companies have policies which low / middle level managers cannot circumvent.
It's not always the manager's fault.
1. Tux will fly
To this day flightless like other penguins, Linux mascot Tux will shake the world by flying into the Eiffel Tower, prompting a renewal of the 'war on terrorism'.
2. Slashdot will be free of trolls
CmdrTaco will utter the regexp to end all regexps, and the lameness filter will finally work. Forever.
3. RMS installs Windows
RMS, leader of the Free World, will renounce GNU purity and follow the temptations of Microsoft by installing Windows 2.0. From the horses mouth: "Freeware like GNU just doesn't cut it when stacked up against real software made by real programmers with fat wallets. It's a moral choice really - the corporations deserve our dollars. Freedom shmeedom."
4. There is no prediction 4.
Why not post a nice root password and an IP address here, then you'll have something to do!
Yeah, like, check your house contents regularly and when they get stolen, replace them!
I don't need to add anything, my contribution is complete.
My only reason for continuing to post is to encourage you to make a reasoned response, which you have yet to do.
Why don't you just stop replying if you don't have anything to add?
*yawn*
Your persuasive argument has convinced me just how right you are.
Not really (c:
Perhaps it's a bad business model. That would be a valid comment. But no, you were whinging about being asked to contribute to Gnome financially, when KDE doesn't ask this. You were wrong, and irrelevant simultaneously.
by Anonymous Coward on 01/12/19 15:42 (Score:0)
What is so hard to understand about needing $$$ to support the effort?
KDE never asked me for any money for their efforts, and it's doing pretty damn good.
The Kompany sell proprietary software.
No-one forces you to buy it. No-one forces you to pay for Ximian's premium service. And your point is?
I said clittering, which was a Freudian slip, when I should have said cluttering (c:
Except for many people one of the neat things about Free Software is you don't end up with boxes and old CDs clittering up your limited available storage space, along with the environmental problems that go hand in hand with putting bits onto plastic in boxes made of wood, with manuals made of wood. All I need is that wire that goes from my firewall out through the front wall.
As another caller said, Debian should not scare you, and apt-get is the answer to your needs.
A missionary is not just someone on a mission, it is someone who is sent on a mission
Merriam webster disgrees. Missionary: a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission.
You should be able to see the parallel between religion and the feelings that drive people to write Free Software. Think of all the times you've read the phrase "linux zealot" in this forum.
Anyway, I wasn't trying to say that "missionary" was the perfect word to describe Free Software developers. I admit it's not. It's a damn sight better than "hobbyist" though.
You're right, they do it for something much more serious than that: fun
"Fun" can be interpreted in many different ways. Some people do they're paying dayjob for "fun" (Bill G doesn't have to work any more, does he?). Saying that you are doing something for fun is not the same as saying you are a "hobbyist".
until you make your living from it, you're a hobbyist
So Einstein was a hobbyist. And so's Bill Gates. Yes, he gets paid, no it's not his "living", he already has that.
That letter indicated a low level of seriousness relative to a shrink-wrapped closed-source software shop, too.
You've never read an EULA, then, or attempted to get support for shrink-wrapped software.
Einstein did science for a living, therefore he was a professional scientist.
Please, at least get your facts right. Einstein was a patent clerk. He did his science in his "spare time".
If missionaries never gave up, the Spanish Inquisition would still be going on
As I've said, I know the word "missionary" is not perfect. The word "amateur" is in fact the correct word, but thanks to the sustained badmouthing by "professionals", the word now has the same connotations as your "hobbyist". So I still think "missionary" is the more fitting title.
Not my patch...
:-) Best look for yourself.
The fork appears to be under active development, so probably
Xipy, have a look at these.
It's not GPL'd at all. It used to be. It's now 'free for non-commercial use'. See their licensing information.
However, have a look at my journal for some other similar packages, one of which is a fork of the original GPL'd Mindterm.
Then why say 'day to day basis' in (a) at all? It has no semantic content.
Conciseness prevents confusion; get some.
So they're not doing something in their free time for pleasure?
That's right, missionaries are doing it because they believe it's the right thing to do.
Yes, there are some who do it 'for pleasure'. But, even for them, the word 'hobbyist' is a bad choice. Check out the Merriam Webster definition of 'hobby':
a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation .
The Abiword developers are not doing Abiword for relaxation!
The word 'hobby' indicates a low level of seriousness. Your argument (and similar arguments of others here) depends on this nuance of meaning. I hereby declare it null and void.
Amateur. There's a good word that's been destroyed by professionals trying to boost their profit margins. Einstein was an amateur scientist. Unfortunately (thanks to the professionals) many people take from the word 'amateur' the same sense as the word 'hobbyist'. It leaves us short of things to call people like him - so I call them missionaries, because they're on a mission.
Of course, there are incompetent missionaries just as there are incompetent professionals. But missionaries are not about to give up. Professionals will leave you in the lurch when they smell profit elsewhere.
I hope these ideas don't appear completely alien to you.