On Torvalds' POV towards freedom (Re: On cadence and collaboration)

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

Hi Mark,

Sorry that I don't comment on your proposal, as I'm not really the most
indicate, except to say I appreciate it, and I hope it's succesful.

But there's something I'd really like to comment on.

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 10:21:38AM +0100, Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> I enjoyed
> Linus Torvalds' recent interview where he talked about prejudice against
> Microsoft in the Linux community, and how poisonous it is. The same is
> true of prejudice against Ubuntu here in Debian.

I think you're misscharacterizing Torvalds' statement.  He said that hatred is
a disease, but that's a generally agreed upon fact, and I don't think it's the
core of his message.  He also said:

  "There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one
   major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more.
   I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about
   exclusion and hatred."

which basically amounts to: "If you speak about freedom, you're an extremist
full of hate".

Torvalds' message is that of an extremist itself.  In Torvalds' mind, it is
not conceiveable that people care about freedom out of love, and that they
don't hate anyone because of it.

In his narrow view of reality, standing and defending your rights is the same
thing as hating the person who'd take them away from you.

Mark, since you speak about free software yourself, I assume you don't
adhere to this point of view.  I think it would be in your best interest
to watch carefully before subscribing to something this person said.

Thanks

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."