I have to disagree. ESR's recent "* My Job -- Please" both were arrogant and condescending to the free software community, as others here have adequately explained. I used to respect ESR, but reading these two pieces gave me a sick feeling in my stomach...
I got the same sick feeling when I read BP's anti-KDE rant many months ago. But, BP has learned from his mistakes, he has even admitted them, and has gone out of his way to point out when misconceptions still exist which could be traced back to his QPL rant.
ESR has done no such thing. He thinks that polite disagreements are personal attacks.
You say that "both presume to be talking for everyody" -- well, Perens' recent work wasn't just Perens, it was SPI and Debian as well. The Debian representative (Wichert Akkerman (sp?)) was *elected* by the Debian developers (>400 of them!).
ESR represents himself and his opinions, and presumes to represent all of us. Perens et al (especially the et al!) represent themselves and their opinitions, and have a legitimate claim to represent many of us.
Perens was very active on Slashdot after he posted his APSL response, defending and discussing his position. I think we all wish ESR would do the same (perhaps not on Slashdot, but in a public forum somewhere...) (And please don't call ESR's presence in this discussion "particiption", he has so far not followed up on the responses to any of his posts... though I hope he does.)
ESR mishandled the APSL. Why can't he just admit that? There is no shame in being wrong once in a while, but there is great shame in trying to blame your mistakes on others. He would gain my respect once again.
But then I'm just a slashdot kiddie. Why should he want my respect?
Slashdot Mirror
Are you holding others to a higher standard than you hold yourself?
I have to disagree. ESR's recent "* My Job -- Please" both were arrogant and condescending to the free software community, as others here have adequately explained. I used to respect ESR, but reading these two pieces gave me a sick feeling in my stomach...
I got the same sick feeling when I read BP's anti-KDE rant many months ago. But, BP has learned from his mistakes, he has even admitted them, and has gone out of his way to point out when misconceptions still exist which could be traced back to his QPL rant.
ESR has done no such thing. He thinks that polite disagreements are personal attacks.
You say that "both presume to be talking for everyody" -- well, Perens' recent work wasn't just Perens, it was SPI and Debian as well. The Debian representative (Wichert Akkerman (sp?)) was *elected* by the Debian developers (>400 of them!).
ESR represents himself and his opinions, and presumes to represent all of us. Perens et al (especially the et al!) represent themselves and their opinitions, and have a legitimate claim to represent many of us.
Perens was very active on Slashdot after he posted his APSL response, defending and discussing his position. I think we all wish ESR would do the same (perhaps not on Slashdot, but in a public forum somewhere...) (And please don't call ESR's presence in this discussion "particiption", he has so far not followed up on the responses to any of his posts... though I hope he does.)
ESR mishandled the APSL. Why can't he just admit that? There is no shame in being wrong once in a while, but there is great shame in trying to blame your mistakes on others. He would gain my respect once again.
But then I'm just a slashdot kiddie. Why should he want my respect?