From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Jun 20 2001 - 02:51:45 MDT
Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> Christian Szegedy wrote:
>
> > Mike Lorrey wrote:
> > > This is untrue. Robert Stallman is on record specifically admitting that his
> > > goal in creating the GNU license was to destroy and bankrupt any software
> > > developer that ever made a buck on software.
> >
> > I looked at some speeches and manifests of Mr.Stallman for example the
> > most recent one:
> > http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt
> >
> > (I have to remark that this is about the same as his first talks in 1984, his
> > philosophy remained remarkably stable over the years.)
> >
> > Let us look at what Stallman really says:
>
> snip much RMS propaganda....
>
You mean RMS actual words are RMS proganda? Most of what he
said is in fact accurate to the record of what he did and what
he believes. That doesn't mean it is wrong or right per se,
merely accurate. That is hardly what I think of us as
propaganda.
>
> I am only communicating what I've read in Boardwatch Magazine, which quoted RMS from I
> beleive a BYTE mag interview from some years ago. RMS said that he felt violated at his
> intellectual atmosphere being violated by the commercialism of his colleagues who went off to
> found successful software companies and vowed to make them pay.
This looks like a very twisted rendition. Please give an exact
quote if you believe this is accurate. I have read everything I
saw on this guy for some time and I have never heard him say
that he was out to make those who chose differently "pay".
>Whether the open source
> business model(s) work or not is irrelvant to this historical fact.
What fact? The above is not a fact. It is hearsay.
>The market will decide
> whether they do, or not. According to the president of Red Hat at a recent conference, they
> don't.
Irrelevant to what drives an RMS. Irrelevant to whether open
source produces better software.
> However, that is immaterial to the reason why RMS originally was motivated into writing the
> GNU public license.
And you believe a sort-of-remembered rendition of an article in
BYTE at some unidentified time that may or may not have quoted
RMS adequately gives good insight into his motivations for
devoting much of his life to what he believes in?
> Personally I like open source software, as I am generally a skinflint, and at present I am
> also only working part time, as well as the fact that I generally don't need much support
> beyond talking to other users for free (the presence of other users willing to share info for
> free is one weakness, IMHO, of the open source business model, when your chief competition
> for revinue works for free, its a bit difficult to make money off of anybody but people who
> confuse CD players with cup holders.)
I think we have enough brains and enough creativity to find more
interesting ways to make a living than to cater to that crowd.
Besides, even Open Source customer support people, who do need
to have patience for such, don't work for free.
> In that interview, RMS, after writing his GNU public license, found that it was difficult to
> recruit others into his plan simply out of reasons of spite and economic jealousy, so he had
> to create a manifesto of positive reasons for open source along the lines of GNU. Today, the
What a load of hogwash. This is a disgusting level of character
assasination to pull out of a magazine article not even directly
cited.
> propaganda is what open source proponents hype, and are in denial about the possibility that
> RMS might possibly have had other reasons when he first set out to create the GNU movement.
Actually. It doesn't even matter as long as I know my reasons
for being involved. Or do you think we are all in some strange
cult that depends on the utter saintliness of RMS?
> This seems to be something of a case of unintended consequences, where Stallman's
> rationalizations have real world validity irrespective of his personal motivations. The
> market will tell.
Actually it is not nearly as simple as that.
- samantha
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