Related link: http://www.sco.com/scosource/quotes_from_leaders.html
I came across this while reading through the various SCO Source campaign materials that others have been regularly citing. This page contains various quotes from Stallman and Perens that are designed to make them appear as free-wheeling techno-anarchists that are out to destroy SCO, and probably, according to SCO’s rational, the whole of the corporate software business.
I’m not really bothered by the quotes they’ve chosen, or the fact that they’re likely taken way out of context. What really frustrates me is that they’ve cited two individuals that don’t speak for the whole of the open source community (because no one really can) and who don’t work on the kernel– the bubble gum center of this whole debate.
A rebuttal site is in order.
Have you found any quotes from Linux developers that could help countermand SCO’s FUD campaign?
free speech
"This is becoming a tradition. I go there and break the law every year in the name of free speech." Bruce Perens.
Doesn't free speech always entail, breaking the law???? :) :)
http://www.seagate.cc/blog/
Stallman hardly a "Linux leader"
Stallman is hardly a Linux leader. From what I've seen of Stallman's comments on Linux, he mainly views it as, rather unfortunately, the only currently practical carrier for the FSF's GNU software. He usually seems annoyed that people give so much time attention on Linux and not enough to his more ideologically pure HURD kernel project. And I suspect the fact that Linus Torvalds is far from being a GPL zealot irks him to no end.
Stallman hardly a "Linux leader"
Stallman may not fit your definition of "Linux leader", but many see him as such, and that's why SCO used quotes that are allegedly attributed to him. I say allegedly because some of them have
already been refuted.
On linux-elitists, Peter Kaminski pointed out that the first "Stallman" citation was actually written by Larry McVoy (BitMover). Here's the archived LKML message:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3193
Stallman quoted McVoy in a subsequent message, and that's why it has been attributed to him. And while Stallman might be zealous, he has in fact done a great deal for Linux even though some disagree with his tactics and idealogies.
Stallman hardly a "Linux leader"
Perhaps I should have said it this way: saying Stallman is a "Linux leader" is somewhat like saying that Bud Selig is a leader of the New York Yankees - not entirely incorrect, but missing the point. Yes, Stallman is an important figure for many in the Linux community. But that's because he's a (the) leader of the Free Software movement generally, and Linux is an important piece of Free Software. Stallman himself, I believe, is less interested in the Linux part of "GNU/Linux", and more interested in GNU. Which is perfectly understandable, given that GNU is his baby.
So SCO's use of his quotes is disingenuous on two counts. First, because Stallman's primary commitment is not to Linux, but to GNU, and second, because of the misleading nature of the quotes as taken out of context.