Re: Difference between Unix and Linux?

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Article #4235

#4235

From: Robert Uhl ruhl
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 22:38

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Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org> writes:
> 
> The "advocacy stuff" seems to be doing little other than to irritate
> people that would otherwise be _supportive_ of the FSF.

That's part of the problem IMHO.  The FSF's mission, last I checked,
was to promote free software rather than the proprietary sort.  I'll
admit, were I not so firmly in the free software camp, I'd probably
have returned to the open source camp, or even gone over wholesale to
championing proprietary software (not a good chance of that latter, to
be certain).  Its actions regarding the naming nonsense are driving
people away.

> The positions being held at the FSF are hardly conciliatory, either.
> They permit little response other than:
>  a) "Oh, great masters, I was so WRONG!  I'll call it GNU/Linux now",
>     or
>  b) "Go away - you annoy me."
> 
> Neither are particularly satisfactory responses.

Yup.  I think that the original point--that some folks haven't
recognised the contributions of the GNU Project--is possibly valid
(I'm not certain, as I've read several articles which have pointed out
that Linux is far more than just Linus Torvald's creation).  I think
that some way to let people know what a moral debt they owe the FSF
would be a Good Idea.

I just believe that harping about names and being seen as childish is
hardly the way to go about it.

> The FSF _should_ be trying to promote strategic development of
> important pieces of software.  I'd buy that a "BitKeeper replacement"
> would be a meaningful example of that.  They could probably do a lot
> worse than promote Arch, by a longtime FSF stalwart :-).

I think that Torvald's point, that he'd use a free alternative were it
available, makes a lot of sense.  There _should_ be a free
alternative.  Had I any knowledge whatsoever, I might try my hand at
it.  Unfortunately, I don't, and what little time I have is taken up
by travtrack:-(

Enjoy your webpages, BTW.

-- 
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
Violence is the last resort of the incompetent.  The competent, of
course, make it their _first_ resort.

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Subject: Re: Difference between Unix and Linux?
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From: ruhl@4dv.net (Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>)
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