The relationship I have with Stallman is cordial. The last time he visited California (during the Linux World show in August), he called me, ask for help to support a cause, and I answered the call with an endorsement from Cygnus. Note that I could have wimped out and done nothing, or I could have said "it's ok to use my name, but not the name of Cygnus", but I went the extra mile to get our CEO and CFO to agree to participate in this action.
It's very easy to talk a good free software story when you're preaching to the converted. Stallman and I share the experience of talking not to the converted, but to the skeptical. Stallman has taken one approach, that of the unapologetic idealist. This approach tends to polarize opinion and result in reporting that either brands him a saint or a lunatic. I take the approach of the unapologetic pragmatist, and that tends to lead to reporting that acknowledges the merits of the case. Either way, Stallman and I catch a lot of flames, but we catch them for different reasons. I'm glad that Stallman has established the position that he has...it enables me to work the field from a different angle.
The splintering of the GCC compiler was due to the fact that Cygnus was able to build its development reasources faster than the FSF could build the infrastructure to deal with them. The fact is that when all was said and done, the splintering was healed, and the FSF has endorsed the steering committee that Cygnus helped to create, and now both Cygnus and the FSF are working on a common version of GCC. How many other open source project have you seen come together once they splintered? *BSD? Ha!
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- The relationship I have with Stallman is cordial. The last time he visited California (during the Linux World show in August), he called me, ask for help to support a cause, and I answered the call with an endorsement from Cygnus. Note that I could have wimped out and done nothing, or I could have said "it's ok to use my name, but not the name of Cygnus", but I went the extra mile to get our CEO and CFO to agree to participate in this action.
- It's very easy to talk a good free software story when you're preaching to the converted. Stallman and I share the experience of talking not to the converted, but to the skeptical. Stallman has taken one approach, that of the unapologetic idealist. This approach tends to polarize opinion and result in reporting that either brands him a saint or a lunatic. I take the approach of the unapologetic pragmatist, and that tends to lead to reporting that acknowledges the merits of the case. Either way, Stallman and I catch a lot of flames, but we catch them for different reasons. I'm glad that Stallman has established the position that he has...it enables me to work the field from a different angle.
- The splintering of the GCC compiler was due to the fact that Cygnus was able to build its development reasources faster than the FSF could build the infrastructure to deal with them. The fact is that when all was said and done, the splintering was healed, and the FSF has endorsed the steering committee that Cygnus helped to create, and now both Cygnus and the FSF are working on a common version of GCC. How many other open source project have you seen come together once they splintered? *BSD? Ha!
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