Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 02:45:09 -0500 (EST) From: Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@FreeBSD.ORG> To: John Kelly <jak@cetlink.net> Cc: Karl Denninger <karl@mcs.net>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Someone needs to re-develop "Softupdates" Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980309015400.242B-100000@localhost> In-Reply-To: <35034f2e.134015736@mail.cetlink.net>
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On Mon, 9 Mar 1998, John Kelly wrote:
> >According to Kirk, if someone wants to use it in a "Production ISP System"
> >(to cite one of his examples) they need to negotiate a license from him.
> >
> >To use a single word Kirk: NO.
>
> >That's nothing short of incredible, if you ask me.
>
> It's amazing how some of the same people who decry commercializing
> FreeBSD with donor control of funding have no objection to Kirk's
> commercial hooks.
FreeBSD is proud to encourage commercial co-operation! We are
not fanatasiscts out to change the world, doomsayers intent on
converting the masses, or prophets on a mission. We are here to
provide you, yes you Karl Denninger and John Kelly, you, with the
best operating system that we can.
When we were approached by a commercial entity with a commercial
proposition that would allow us to give you more options, options
to use a better, faster, and safer operating system, we were
happy to take them up, especially since their offer required us
to sacrifice nothing! Sure, it would have been nice if the
commercial entity had been able to provide its products for free,
but this was not feasible, and truthfully, we had to make a
choice between providing you with a better operating system or
not providing you with a better operating system. I am confident
that the right choice was made!
Let me expound, for just a minute, on why I believe the right
choice was made.
In this world, in this day, we are more and more living in what I
would call a truly cosmopolitan environment. There are people
everywhere, each with their own individual goals and ends, going
about their own individual work, split-out and spread-out over
the entire earth. We, the world, are not Sparta, carefully
molded into commune with each other, all working in sync.
Some, for whom we have the greatest respect even as we laugh at
their foolishness, would try to make us into Sparta. They have
forgotten that it is the plurality and multiplicity that has made
modern civilization into the success it is, which, for all its
shortcomings, must be acknowledged as greater and higher than
that of any preceeding era. They have forgotten that they,
themselves, are rebels against the very Spartan environment they
advocate. They have lost sight of their roots, of their own.
We, at FreeBSD, recognize reality and believe, in the greatest of
Asian traditions, that it is not possible to fight reality!
Rather, we must work with it, using it to enhance both itself,
and us. We are not inseparable from reality, but rather, we
exist only through this reality! To us, this is really only
stating the obvious, but to one who has forever been smashing
their head against the cornerstones of the earth, to finally
appreciate this is a revelation.
What is this reality that we are part of? To be sure, it is
outlined above through the implicit and through the general.
But, all true ideas, all noble ideas, all ideas of any
significance at all, have specifics. Right now, at this time, on
this day, in this world, that specific happens to be that some
members of our cosmopolitan world are different from us. They
are not able, perhaps due to location, perhaps history, perhaps
mental stability, to provide code in the same way that we do.
Consistent with our above guiding philosophy, the same one that
attracted you to us, we have said "Ok, we cannot change the world
to match our conception of it, therefore we must change our
conception of the world." With this maxim in hand, we looked at
Kirk and said: "By golly! Soft updates are way cool! How can we
use them?" The result is part of one of the best operating
systems in the world!
Now, let's agree that, sure, it would have been sexier if this
commercial entity had provided all of the code in the form we
usually make our code available. However, we are adults here!
There is more to life than sex! Would we be so shallow as some
others in the computing community to insist that all our partners
have only the highest level of sex appeal? Never! This is the
90's, and we have to recognize that once the lights are off,
intercourse is intercourse, and all those sexy features that make
you want to sleep with rms instead of gates amount to absolutely
nothing. When all is said and done, a pretty face is only a
pretty face, which can alone by itself accomplish nothing save
for looking pretty.
Microsoft, the great evil empire, has released software called
"FrontPage". "Horror of Horrors" I hear cried, as I explain
that, yes, people, good, sexy people, have gone out of their way
to work with this software. Why? Because, my friends,
"FrontPage" has the appropriate desired sex organs, and, while it
may not be pretty, it gets the job done.
Now, to address what is hopefully one last issue one last time:
One of the necessities for a cosmopolitan world is a common means
of exchange. Money, in our case. Alas, however, plastic
surgeons do not come cheap. To buy a facelift for each of our
partners, majestically transforming them from an ugly beast into
only the fairest and handsomest of people, is simply not feasibly
at this time, in this world. We take them as they come, since,
after all, it is from this maelstrom of population that we,
ourselves, have risen, and to fight our birth parents, our
heritage, indeed, ultimately ourselves, is foolishness. However,
should you provide funds for the various sex toys that we
purchase at our discretion, which are, of course, relatively
cheap, we should be most grateful! I must caution, though, a sex
toy does not a partner make --- rather, these toys we purchase
are useful in only the most general of senses.
Now, I realize I probably lost most of my audience with the very
message header I maintained, and probably most of those remaining
after paragraph #2, but for those hardy souls, those intent on
gaining wisdom and knowledge, who have read and followed and
understood thus far, to them I say: remember what you have
learned! Don't let it die! Hold onto it in your hearts!
I do not claim any great wisdom for myself; I am no prophet, no
seer, no leader. I can only speak what I see, and see what is to
be found here on this physical world. If you have found some
great wisdom in here, then it is you who have found it, rather
than I who have given it to you. Comparatively, if you have not
found any great wisdom in here, perhaps you are blind as a bat?
Speaking of which, incidentally, has anyone else noticed that
there now exists a WWW.FreeBSD.NET?
--
tIM...HOEk
OPTIMIZATION: the process of using many one-letter variables names
hoping that the resultant code will run faster.
[I should also take this space to do my obligatory egging on of
all participants in the most recent debate. Rather than being
specific, I shall merely suggest to you that spirit. Consider
this the suggestion! Now go! Fight!]
[Rated "R" for stupidity]
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