Comments on: FUDMeister Back in Action — Bill Hilf Spreads Lies and Myths About Linux and FLOSS

By: eet

eet — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:09:26 +0000

I know that being free as in 'freedom' make its remarkable but being free as in 'beer' and open as in 'open source' makes it a commercial success. Please don't preach to the already-converts. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Kevin Cave

Kevin Cave — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:59:42 +0000

eet,

It’s not the price-tag which makes Free and Open Source Software remarkable. It’s the very fact that the software is Free-as-in-Freedom. It’s remarkable that you can actually see the full source code to the Linux kernel. It’s remarkable that you can see the source code to OpenOffice. Ditto goes for all the GPL’ed software you can download and install on your computer.

It’s remarkable that you can /change/ the source code as you see fit. It’s remarkable that you can redistribute the software quite Freely (as in Freedom) – the only “restriction” to that being that you also have to license the software with the exact same licensing terms as the original source that you got it, but as you are probably well aware, that’s remarkable too.

Regards,

KC.

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:27:56 +0000

For a FOSS-advocate you have remarkably little understanding about what makes FOSS remarkable... FOSS is only successfull because it is NOT the product of a single company but the product of collaboration between all companies and unpaid helper involved. It reduces development-costs drastically. That and the price-tag of the software (zero, if no support is involved) are the reason Linux could become a success. But this goes also for OpenOffice and many other projects. Time that you try to understand it: We are talking about a fundamentally different business-model when we are talking about FOSS. Single companies can go bottom-up, a dozen of them are unlikely. Single companies can be ruined in a court of law, a dozen of them can't - especially if IBM is one of the parties involved. The thing called FOSS has become to big to suppress, thus M$ is now participating in this new business model and adapting. Money is money, after all; whether it comes from proprietary or free software. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:51:43 +0000

ignoring a problem is not going to make it vanish .

Just ask Corel, Netscape, RealNetworks and dozens of other large companies which thought that ignoring anti-competitive tactics will be fine, and that justice will prevail.

By: tracyanne

tracyanne — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:51:29 +0000

The content of the SuSE Blog link is simply childish, it achieves nothing where it really matters, but then this blog achieves the same effect, where it matters. The HAckFUD article, on the othe hand, does a well reasoned job of dismantling Bill Hilf’s lies half truths and inuendoes.

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:48:40 +0000

Well, actually no; the part that bothers me most is alienating already existing Linux-users and trying to split the community. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:58:46 +0000

You - well especially Roy Schestowitz - suffer from delusions of grandeur if you think that Linux' survival depends on you lot. Linux' survival now is IBM's, Novell's, Red Hat's and countless of their big clients' (BMW, Deutsche Bank, Peugeot etc. etc.) problem. Face it, what you write here is utterly unimportant for the survival of Linux; the only objectives it serves are a) satisfy your own desire to feel righteous; b) alienate prospective new Linux-users. The latter part is the one I hold most grudge against you for. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Victor Soliz

Victor Soliz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:11:24 +0000

eet, you are just delusional, It would be foolish to ignore Microsoft’s attempts to consume Linux, mostly because we are Linux users, that’s what truly pragmatic people do, they protect themselves and are alert, ignoring a problem is not going to make it vanish .

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:04:50 +0000

Did I say 'believers'? I meant 'religious extremists'. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:58:31 +0000

I'm a SUSE-user, no more. And as a Linux user I take offense in 'high-level trolling' by the likes of you. If you feel like being religious about something, go to church. FOSS is the wrong place for that because it requires thinking, not worship of the 'only true and pure Linux'. We need thinkers, not believers. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Who are you anyway? Care to post under you real name? Are you associated/affiliated with SuSE or Novell? All you do here is troll endlessly.

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:09:30 +0000

Ah, indeed! Seems there aren't so many fanatics around after all. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:57:04 +0000

Bruce wrote this article after we had some disagreement (I’m not sure it’s a direct response though). Mine is a direct response to his.

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:04:48 +0000

Roy, you would be well advised to read this article:

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3711871

The first page is titled ‘It’s time to get over Microsoft’; meaning some FOSS advocates’ obsession with this company.

The second page is named ‘It’s time to grow up’, and it means people exactly like YOU, Roy.

The author comments on a reply to a previous article – that could well have been a reply by you – and I feel that it could have been a comment on your blog, Roy:

“To which I can only reply, “Will you listen to yourself?”

Between the self-importance, the fanaticism, and the either-or logic of such a comment, an outsider could only conclude that the speaker’s motherboard had popped a few capacitors. Such crusading rants are going to scare many people, and the few it attracts will be scary folks to have hanging around.”

Grow up, Roy!

Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:44:48 +0000

Unlike Hilf et al, I’m not associated with a company and I market nothing. I am a GNU/Linux and I don’t wish to see a group of companies making it their property by excluding everyone that does not pay Microsoft for Linux (yes for Linux). This is a big scam that is intended to hurt and even eliminate freedom (libre and gratis).

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:25:28 +0000

Yes, drop the FUD, Roy. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:21:20 +0000

Oops. That was a type, Kevin. I spotted and fixed a few more as I reread this.

About SUSEBlog, I agree with you. I wanted to just drop that link altogether, but eventually just added a gentle warning instead.

The point of that link — however disgraceful the content may be — was to show that others acknowledge the disdain Bill Hilf has earned. Martin Taylor seems to have quit the company when he realised that the FUDMeister role is no easy role to have. Microsoft should just drop the FUD.

By: eet

eet — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:14:36 +0000

Roy 'FUDMeister' Schestowitz with all his persona and his writing is a one-man anti-Linux campaign. Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll

By: Kevin Cave

Kevin Cave — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:00:40 +0000

“FUDMesiter” – should be FUDMeister

I do have one problem with your article though, and that’s the link to that SUSEBlog article – I personally find that kind of thing distasteful, and it’s that kind of rather – in my opinion – childish stuff which /could/ give people the wrong impression of Linux and/or FOSS users. I truly think them doing stuff like that is completely counteractive, and has a negative effect on FOSS.

Best regards,

Kevin.