Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 26th Aug 2009 22:23 UTC
When Windows Vista was launched, the Free Software Foundation started its BadVista campaign, which was aimed at informing users about what the FSF considered user-restrictive features in Vista. Luckily for the FSF, Vista didn't really need a bad-mouthing campaign to fail. Now that Windows 7 is receiving a lot of positive press, the FSF dusted off the BadVista drum, and gave it a fresh coat of paint.
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Member since:
2005-07-12
"But the real proof is in the Hurd, since for all the talk Stallman gives about the superiority of open source software his main project is not only unfinished but in an unworking state. He can't find enough volunteer programmers to finish the Hurd and yet he wants everyone to adopt his software model. Further those that do not adopt his model are according to him unethical and against the "Freedoms" that he defined. What a joke."
This paragraph is a joke.
Yes, the Hurd is a failure.
But the Hurd is only piece of software.
The FSF has been spectacularly successful with a lot of it's other software -
gcc - near ubiquitous on all platforms
glibc - standard API on many unix/linux/bsd systems
Emacs - love it or hate it, it has enjoyed very widespread use
unix shells, such as bash - standard shells used on Linux distros
Gimp - in spite of the stupid name and the less than desirable interface, it's a full featured image manipulation program that is comparable to Photoshop
GTK - GUI library used across many unix/linux systems, as well as many desktop applications
... and there are many others. Just peruse the FSF website.
All of it licensed under the GPL, or the LGPL.
And those things are why Stallman often insists on calling Linux, "GNU/Linux", because the combination of the Linux kernel with gcc, glibc, bash, and various other GNU utilities, constitutes a complete (albeit minimal) functioning system.
And oh yeah, the Linux kernel itself is licensed under the GPL. Linux powers Google. Linux powers many websites. Linux powers many devices, phones, set top boxes, and yes, even desktops/laptops. It's a spectacular success by any measure.
Clearly Stallman's development method is a proven, spectacular success.
And you're wrong. Period. Sorry.
Now that said, the GPL is just one of many viable open source licenses, all of which have pluses and minuses, like BSD, MPL, Apache license, EPL, MIT, and many others.
And in everything I've read from Stallman, it doesn't necessarily say those other licenses are bad. He just says the GPL is best for protecting people's freedoms.
And I'm no Stallmannite. Again, I'm a pragmatist, and Stallman is a hardcore idealist.
But I'm glad he's out their spouting off his ideals. While I don't agree with all his ideals, his actions have helped all of us immensely.