[MasterOne]

[!]

I don't like Bitcoin and I don't like Richard Stallman because he acts like a hippie, for example going without shoes in some conferences, I think he gives open source software bad image... ...but (!) I agree with a lot of things he say. Not all of it but he has some very good points.

Personally, I was very anti open source because my dream was to live off making my own software and selling it. Bear in mind, I'm a VIC20, ATARI 520 STFM and AMIGA guy. Back in those days, people who copies other people's source code were called "code rippers" and had a very low ranking in those communities I used to hangout in. It took me 20 years to realize people don't generally like to pay for software. Long story short, I do like open source these days.

I cannot say I have knowledge in Linux anymore because I haven't touched it for years and years but I'm glad it exists. If it wasn't for all the games, I most likely wouldn't have used Windows.

[Steven W]

I *do* like Stallman's ideaology, but have to admit he can be a bit odd.



I love the following comment on the actual Youtube video page:

Gonna start eating stuff off my feet to see if my code improves

[!]

WHAT... THE... FUCK! There is something really wrong with that guy. I almost think he is paid by "the other camp" (close source) to make open source look bad. I MEAN, SERIOUSLY, WHAT... THE... FUCK!?

[Steven W]

Yeah, he's odd. That's putting it mildly. I said before that I like his ideology, perhaps I should be more clear. Like you "!", I agree with much of what he says. Not all. I admire the man's passion for Free Software. At times I think he can be a bit overbearing. His insistence that Linux be called GNU Linux comes to mind:

http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html

In my opinion some act as though the Linux kernel was a trivial matter. Not saying GNU was either, but it's just a name.

I would go so far as to argue that if the USL-Regents of UCal Settlement Agreement (http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php ... 6130302760) had occurred a few years earlier, most of the effort put into Linux may have gone to some BSD instead. I'm getting a little off point here.

Why do I like Linux (GNU Linux)? I believe that at it's core, it's far better than any commercial operating system that I can afford (Mac and Windows). While I wouldn't necessarily choose it for all code, I like the idea of the GPL too.

[Kittypie070]

The operating system in which Linux became popular was basically the same as the GNU operating system. It was not entirely the same, because it had a different kernel, but it was mostly the same system. It was a variant of GNU. It was the GNU/Linux system.

What bullshit.

It's kinda the same but it's different but not really cuz it's mostly the same and that means it's identical.

If I spewed such childish drivel I would DEMAND my friends to correct me.

Yes, I fucking cherry-picked that one phrase. It stood out rather...um...baldly.

And obliquely accusing Mr Torvalds, a Finn, of behaving in a manner similar to a Soviet, while elsewhere damning him with randomly varying sound levels of praise, is kinda perhaps an insult, maybe.

[Kittypie070]

..and now I'm official.

Yay me.

[``-_-´´]

And now, we own your soul. Just kidding, welcome!

[Steven W]

Kittypie070, you hit the nail on the head:

The operating system in which Linux became popular was basically the same as the GNU operating system. It was not entirely the same, because it had a different kernel, but it was mostly the same system. It was a variant of GNU. It was the GNU/Linux system.

As for GNU's own kernel, let's take the words from gnu.org itself:

The Hurd, GNU's own kernel, is some way from being ready for daily use. Thus, GNU is typically used today with a kernel called Linux

Doesn't that speak volumes?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that GNU and the FSF are there doing what they do. There's certainly some extremely useful software and licenses put out there. Without Stallman this stuff probably wouldn't exist. The FSF does good things in court too. Stallman's views, even when extreme, forces people to think. In my personal opinion (which I'm apparently not alone in), you'd think a little more gratitude could be shown to Linux. Where would GNU be without it?

[Kittypie070]

I am glad both GNU and Linux exist as well.

Mind you I have zero experience of GNU, and have only sneezed in the general direction of Linux.

There's a correct place very definitely for all-encompassing idealism. And there's a correct place for get-dirt-under-the-fingernails pragmatism.

It's incorrect, however, to describe a symbiotic relationship as parasitic because of an imbalance between idealism and pragmatism.

I might add that I am biased because I have Finnish friends. It makes me a bit defensive at times.

Finns generally aren't the type to go marching around blowing their own horns. They work their asses off to achieve a thing, and they take great pride in a task well done, and that's where they leave it. They let the achievement speak for them, in effect.

To be relentlessly fair to Mr Stallman I should listen to the lecture that was posted here. My friends would advise me to do so.