Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 18:47:31 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Some thoughts on advocacy (was: Slashdot ftp.cdrom.com upgra Message-ID: <372CF223.9E86C8DB@softweyr.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9905030346550.7672-100000@theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in>
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I started to make this a personal reply, but after re-reading the first
comment in this utterance I decided it needed a more public airing.
Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
>
> I agree that this is a pointless discussion on this list. But
> most discussions on this list seem pointless wrt the title
> "freebsd-advocacy". So let me go on a bit longer.
How could you possibly tell what the discussions on this list have or
have not produced? You declare this from the lofty height of a couple
days or weeks of participation?
This is really galling coming from someone who's ONLY participation
has been to advocate something many in this forum find foreign to our
collective objectives.
> You are confusing the GPL with the GNU manifesto.
You seem to be confused that the two are seperable; they are NOT. The
GPL is the implementation of the GNU manifesto.
Please do us all a favor and shut up until you actually have some idea
what you're talking about. When you do figure out what you're talking
about, do it in some appropriate forum. Freebsd-Advocacy is *not* that
forum.
If you want to take a snapshot of FreeBSD and re-release as GPLBSD,
you are entirely free to do that. Nobody in their right mind will
assist you in this when they have access to FreeBSD as the same time,
which does not dictate how they may use it. Many, perhaps even most
of those who contribute to FreeBSD find the GPL to be counter-productive
and socially unacceptable on many levels. Your preaching here is not
only inappropriate, it is counter to what WE BELIEVE IN. The GPL is
the implementation of the GNU manifesto, and FreeBSD is and always will
remain under the FREE Berkeley-style license it is now distributed
under because the BERKELEY LICENSE IS BETTER.
The GPL ends up doing exactly what it purports to prevent: software
hoarding. Since software ENCUMBERED with the GPL cannot be effectively
used in commercial products, it ends up not being used in exactly the
way it should be used. Imagine how difficult it would have been to
create the Internet we have now if every vendor had implemented their
own versions of SMTP, DNS, FTP, and even TCP/IP. The reason the
Internet exists today is because brilliant contributors had the
foresight to release their work under a license that ALLOWED it to
be included in SunOS and HP-UX and AIX and even (shudder) VAX/VMS.
Now, is that completely clear?
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com
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