On Tue, Sep 07, 1999 at 01:34:34AM -0400, Branden Robinson wrote: > > I've written a short paper discussing the implications for Linux of Sun's > > StarOffice release, and upon the fact that it's not really Open Source, which > > most of the press got wrong. Debian is mentioned. Please see > > http://perens.com/Articles/StarOffice.html . > > On balance, I think this was an article that needed to be written and I'm > glad you wrote it. Thanks, Bruce. > > However, what happened to "it's time to talk about free software again"? "But Sun said their license was Open Source, not Free Software! Who cares if RMS likes the license or not, as long as I don't have to pay for it and it's not M$ anyway?" Read slashdot comments that happened when this article hit. The majority of them seem to all say that Sun's deception is pretty convincing--or if it isn't, they don't really much care. It's somewhat disheartening to see what the likes of Eric Raymond have done. The text of the OSD is pretty clear as to what most of us will accept as free software. If OSI had lived up to the OSD in the first place, perhaps many of the slashdot readers would still not get it, but I'd like to think that at least a few more of them would. Do I consider Bruce to have been a contributing factor? Yes I do. And I'll wager he realizes that now. Probably realized it some time before he left OSI I'd imagine. But the damage has been done and the best we can do now is try to rectify it. Since for all intents and purposes OSI seems dead now (opensource.org is still not coming up) I think it's best just to move on. If that means now and then we have to play word games for the lusers on slashdot who can't figure out how to create an account much less post something intelligent with it, so mote it be. (Hey Bruce .... I got Eric point-blank range with a NERF dart at LinuxWorld and netgod was crazy enough to let me bring home one of the NERF guns and I got 3 darts here (all I could find) and I'm practicing. Fair warning, muahahaha!) -- Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux developer GnuPG: 2048g/3F9C2A43 - 20F6 2261 F185 7A3E 79FC 44F9 8FF7 D7A3 DCF9 DAB3 PGP 2.6: 2048R/50BDA0ED - E8 D6 84 81 E3 A8 BB 77 8E E2 29 96 C9 44 5F BE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software is like sex, it's better when it's free. -- Linus Torvalds
Attachment:
pgpqbHwPX6PfU.pgp
Description: PGP signature