Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 16:34:17 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "Opposing" the "competition" (was: FreeBSD spokesman (was: So what happens to FreeBSD now?)) Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010705162529.04521930@localhost> In-Reply-To: <15172.52545.788676.736485@guru.mired.org> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010705135915.00bb8a80@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20010705125524.04502690@localhost> <Pine.GSO.4.21.0107031644410.16320-100000@z.glue.umd.edu> <20010703134058.A9446@mooseriver.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010705135915.00bb8a80@localhost>
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At 02:25 PM 7/5/2001, Mike Meyer wrote: >No, I'm stating an opinion. To rephrase, if a highly visible member of >the FreeBSD development community launched a vendetta against the GPL, The word "vendetta" is not appropriate. They should, however, "just say no" to the GPL. The GPL should be expelled from the source trees of FreeBSD and in fact all of the BSDs, because it is contrary to the BSD philosophy. To keep it in the tree is to clasp the serpent to our breast. >it would do serious damage to the FreeBSD project. And it would. I very strongly disagree. It would provide a unifying force and a unifying principle -- something which BSD lacks now. >Now, if I pointed out that your attacks on the FSF are so >single-minded that you are apparently willing to damage the FreeBSD >project in order to damage the FSF in the process, *that* would be >hyperbole. Yes, it would be. However, criticizing the GPL, and pointing out the nasty traps it lays for developers, does not and never will damage the FreeBSD project. >The reason Stallman introduced the GPL is irrelevant to the question >of what the free software culture was like before he did so. In your previous message you claimed that developers' motivations were relevant. Now you're saying that they aren't. But in fact Stallman's motivations are very relevant. Just as the Federalist Papers help us to understand the workings of the US Constitution, Stallman's early writings, such as the GNU Manifesto, are the design documents for the GPL and explain what it was designed to do and how. > Anyone >who is aware of what was going on then knows that the only real change >from the GPL was providing a single license for the large numbers of >people who were already releasing software with the intent that it not >be available for commercial use. This is absolutely untrue. Before Stallman, the ethic which survives in the BSD community was far more universal. Stallman, with misleading rhetoric, rallied programmers in an attempt to arouse spite against commercial developers. In doing so, he did great damage to the collective psyche of the community. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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