It's Free as in Freedom, not Religion
THREE DAYS ago we wrote about the use of the word "zealot" to describe anyone whom you disagree with. This strategy is not new and it is extensively utilised for political goals. Other words that can substitute "zealot" are "neo-fascist", "dictator", "fanatic", and even "terrorist".
Recently, Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the free software movement, expressed some genuine concerns regarding the use of C# to create programs and the use of Mono as free implementation of the .Net framework. Then, something interesting happened. Many people in the open source group were upset at him! Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, made a reference to “Microsoft hating” and linked it to the free software movement.
Excuse me???? Is Microsoft hatred identified with the “free software” community?
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Microsoft is not “evil” ethically speaking, it is just a corporation. However, Microsoft is not a friend of the free software and the open source movements. It has declared itself an enemy of the GNU/Linux operative system a number of times, and it has determined publicly and privately its erradication from the market. Remember the Halloween documents? These are memos that circulated within Microsoft which revealed several strategies to drive GNU/Linux out of the market, many of which include deceiving the public. These documents have been recognized by Microsoft as being authentic. Don’t we remember Bill Gates saying that the GNU GPL was a plague and that the open source community was a bunch of communists? Or don’t we remember that just recently Gates purposely misled people saying that the GPL prevents people from improving software? Don’t we remember the bogus suit by Microsoft against Lindows over trademark rights because Microsoft thought that it was the owner of the “indows” part of the name? Don’t we remember the repeated threats made by Microsoft against companies that distributed GNU/Linux with patent suits? And hasn’t the Software Freedom Law Center reported just a few days ago that Microsoft still continues to shake companies with patent threats?
Pro-mono Zealotry
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What this does illustrate, I think, is something that is already obvious to anyone that has been following the Mono controversy: there are people that are just as “extreme” and unwilling to listen to reason as the most zealoty charactertures painted by the Broad Brush of the Most High and (Self) Righteous Community Gatekeepers.
You can spot these people by the mindless regurgitation of other people’s talking points and the inability to make even the slightest concession to any opposing argument; the gleeful participation in any manner of attack or disinformation; the uncritical embrace of anyone or anything that supports thier position. A sure sign is charging the opposition with the very crimes they themselves are in the act of commiting.
Comments
zatoichi
2009-07-30 14:04:42
But you first, Roy.
Needs Sunlight
2009-07-30 20:32:23
The Mono technology sucks and the best non-attack counter ever offered is along the lines of 'ooh, it will be so full of mono goodness Real Soon Now". The licensing sucks and, aside from a little doubletalk from time to time, the best non-attack counter ever offered is, well, silence.
Oh how time flies. http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-1998/jw-08-volanomark.html
The original J2EE just keeps getting better: http://java.sun.com/javaee/
JohnD
2009-07-30 21:01:44
Roy Bixler
2009-07-30 21:39:12
JohnD
2009-07-30 21:43:41
zatoichi
2009-07-31 01:09:28
JohnD
2009-07-31 01:50:47
JohnD
2009-07-30 18:12:21
Don't see anything in this definition that restricts the use to religious or political conversations. So I'd say the use is "technically" correct and should continue.