Comments on: The battle before the war

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:27:18 +0000

Adam:
Where have Ubuntu Developers ever claimed to have written all the software? On the other hand, many UDs *do* do work upstream. And there are some Ubuntu-specific changes (just as there are SUSE-specific changes to things), so it can make sense to specify on which distro you’re having an issue.

I usually see devs say “you can’t complain if you haven’t filed a bug,” which makes sense to me.

By: What Will We Use Editor

What Will We Use Editor — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:16:35 +0000

I reserve the right to criticize the software products I use. Open or closed source.

By: What Will We Use Editor

What Will We Use Editor — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:13:07 +0000

Eric Raymond is not a free software purist. In fact, he made a big to-do when switching from fedora to ubuntu because he wanted access to third-party software…
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/eric-raymond-dumps-fedora-core.html

By: Adam Tauno Williams

Adam Tauno Williams — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:28:15 +0000

There can’t be a truce with conspiracy theorists and trolls like BoycotNovell.
Point#1:
The whole argument is silly. And nobody who matters cares. Do RMS or ESR even write code anymore? Or code anyone other than themselves uses. I use a LINUX desktop for ALL my work, I know numerous other people who do… and neither I nor them care about “purity” at all. It is just plain stupid. I run proprietary apps on my GNOME desktop [yes, there is quite an ecosystem of proprietary apps that run on LINUX very well].
Point#2:
Note where most of these tasteless remarks come from – the purity advocates [aka conspiracy theorists] like RMS. In short: they have done a great job at discrediting themselves. Bye guys, and good riddance. Open Source is better off without these guys.
Point#3:
Again, just ignore these guys. But the Ubuntu guys should maybe take a hint: stop talking like you INVENTED the LINUX desktop or wrote the software you PACKAGE! Of course people get pissed off. I’ve sat next to *DEVELOPERS* while they got pissed of by people trumpeting how great *THEIR* software was. Hey – you PACKAGED IT, you DID NOT WRITE IT. Just stop saying Ubuntu/Fedora/openSUSE and say LINUX/GNOME… because that is what it is. Give credit where credit is due. To many distro-advocates act like credit suckers.
Point #4
Download counts are entirely meaningless as a measure of use or market penetration.
Point #5
I agree. Non-code contributions are very important.. But you also loose the right to flame developers and inform them of the “obvious” features or behavours their software should have.

By: Aric A.

Aric A. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:23:37 +0000

I agree that the level of infighting over purity in the open source community has gotten a bit ludicrous. Even Linus said:

“I want all my code to be open source, but I will use the best tool for the job[...] When the alternatives are so bad, I will take proprietary code. Proprietary was a downside, but what choice did I have? Hey, I usually do my presentation slides in PowerPoint.”

I consider myself an open-source advocate, but will stop considering myself so the day I’m “required” to completely eschew proprietary solutions. Tools are tools.