“Free software is ego-propelled. People don’t get paid, they get famous. Yet we as a community do far too little to prominently credit the names of the authors. I propose we change that by adopting a few simple practices.” Read the editorial at NewsForge by Hans Reiser. In Greece, we have a saying: “Many hated money, but no one hated glory…”
Slap the Credits everywhere!
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
tat this editorial was made by Reiser. he is a very talented developer and stuff but he has one major ego when it comes to the things he pumps out (any one recall the whole reiserFS debait on the KML back in the 2.3 days?)
I got to agree on that debman. 😉 😉
“Just can’t get enough”
His name is said countless number of times when referring to that filesystem of his.
It seems that what spurred this editorial was the flamefest he initiated on the debian-devel list recently. It is actually a rather amusing read. Especially the suggestion from Manoj Srivastava (I think it was from him anyway) that all the console tools should give us 20 lines of credits as well as mkreiserfs.
Even more amusing is that one of the results from Hans Reiser’s postings on debian-devel is that it is now being investigated whether reiserfs is actually free according to the DFSG. It would be hilarious if it was removed. There are plenty of alternatives anyway.
I agree with the editorial. Like any artist, a coder must have proper credit. For one thing, it’s almost like a seal of quality. This isn’t some miscellaneous doohickey… it’s an original Richard S. Stallman Software Application(tm) that gives you some expectation of what the software’s QA.
It’s also a great incentive for coders to really spit polish their work before they release it; it’s like their honor is on the line.
But how far does it go? For instance, should RSS’s name be #1 on GCC when so much of it is now two generations removed from RSS’s code (forked to EGCS, then renamed GCC again)?
I remember working on a OSS game where we started with one codebase, and proceeded over the next five years to replace every line of code in the program. Without exception. The end result was only vaguely similar in functionality to the original. The question arose; must we still carry the original copyright? We decided, yes; there was a legal burden to continue to display the copyright. But does that legal burden truly reflect the real intellectual contribution to the code? I’m not sure.
What do others think?
Simple. I get to work with people that I would never get a chance to work with in any other circumstance. You get feedback on your code from people who, in many cases, are at the tops of their fields. And, like the article stated, it does coat your ego to have people giving you compliments for making something work that you needed anyways.
Why would I want to contribute to a project that had someone else’s name up in lights? I want to contribute to projects to bolster that project not to bolster that author’s ego. What Reiser’s putting together would be anything but free, and I think it would be counterproductive and provide a disincentive for people to collaborate with one another.
RMS might be great, but I don’t want his face flying across my screen every time I let the screensaver come on.
Are the aware that they’ll get credit for bad software as much as credit for good software they put out? Me, being a lowly amateur programmer, would be worried about that. hehe.
hisnamewassaidtoomanytimesfs
Let’s get this enforced on Windows, so we can get the names of the scumbags who are writing all that damn spyware
IMHO, the whole thing about proper credit is up to the author to decide. Afterall, not everybody codes to get famous, and some wouldn’t give a rat’s ass anyway.
Even still, individual authors are free to impose whatever kind of credit recognition they want in the license. I know that if I had written a piece of free software that was distributed with an OS where my name had to be written on the screensaver, I’d be pretty pissed – I mean, that’s insane. In fact, I’m not sure if I would even put my name in the About box.
Besides, what are you going to do when 300-400 people have contributed to a project? Use a size 2 font or have the names scroll across the screen for half an hour?
crediting authors.. like.. the original BSD license? wow. whoda-thunked-it…
Well, to be sure, the license didn’t give credit to the authors, only to the university.
With this little gem, Hans reveals that he is totally, unequivocally OUT TO LUNCH. The rest of the article is nearly as bad..
This is why distros drop the K from all the KDE programs: somebody else is trying to establish a brand name, and that is a market threat they want to cut off.
Yeah Hans, it’s not because the K is farking stupid or makes free software look like childish Krap; it’s Klearly a Konspiracy!
I guess that’s all I’ve got to say on the matter.
Yeah Hans, it’s not because the K is farking stupid or makes free software look like childish Krap; it’s Klearly a Konspiracy!
I don’t buy this argument. I think it’s actually quite a good idea to “group” names of programs by a common prefix. On BeOS, we had loads of programs with names beginning with “Be” (which, indeed, became somewhat far-fetched in the long run).
Think of all the iApps for MacOS.
If anything looks like embarassingly marketroid-driven, it’s all those Windows applications with “professional” sounding, presumptious names like “PrintMaster Pro Extra Deluxe Pure Gold Platinum Coated Edition”.
Both sides have good arguements here and I can’t make up my mind about who is on the right and who is on the wrong. But …
Would it be wrong to have a ‘credits’ module similar in functionality to the ‘fortune’ module?
You like it: you install it and you costumize it.
You don’t like it: you don’t install it.
No flames, no licences, no argues, no struggles. Just free will I guess.
Okay, I just have to ask: I’ve been seeing Richard Stallman’s name everywhere (and I thought it was RMS, not RSS?), but I don’t have any idea who the helll he is. Anyone care to explain?
Yeah Hans, it’s not because the K is farking stupid or makes free software look like childish Krap; it’s Klearly a Konspiracy!
I don’t buy this argument. I think it’s actually quite a good idea to “group” names of programs by a common prefix. On BeOS, we had loads of programs with names beginning with “Be” (which, indeed, became somewhat far-fetched in the long run).
Think of all the iApps for MacOS.
If anything looks like embarassingly marketroid-driven, it’s all those Windows applications with “professional” sounding, presumptious names like “PrintMaster Pro Extra Deluxe Pure Gold Platinum Coated Edition”.
Took the words from my mouth… 🙂
Cheers,
DeadFish Man
I’m not sure if you were serious when you asked:
Okay, I just have to ask: I’ve been seeing Richard Stallman’s name everywhere (and I thought it was RMS, not RSS?), but I don’t have any idea who the helll he is. Anyone care to explain?
but here is a link to a short bio on RMS:
http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Stallman/index.shtml
To maybe throw my two cents in on this discussion, maybe we should give the authors more decision making power on this issue, as some may want more credit, and others will want less. I know that the only thing I’ve accomplished for open source so far are some logos included with one of the newer distros. They slapped my name in an obscure file that noone will ever see, and that is more credit then I expected, or asked for.
I recently saw a communiqué on a (the?) GNU site recommending that terms such as “author” and “creator” be de-emphasised, since these concepts are alien to the collective cloning efforts which are the mainstay of the FSF philosophy. IOW, Reiser’s proposal is the absolute opposite of the official GNU line.
It’s funny how Reiser uses RMS to support his point in the article…
Killustrator, Kate, Koffice, Konqueror, KEuroDock, Karamba,
kroller, Kaboodle, and theKompany???
Reminds me of the RV place I saw once called “Kustom Koach.” It just sets the teeth on edge.
Briefly, Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation and began the GNU project, the aim of which was to create a free clone of Unix. He wrote the GPL, which is the free software license under which the Linux kernel, GNU software, and countless other free software is licensed. He is credited with beginning the free software movement. For more information, the following sites might be helpful:
A sort-of-biography, much longer than the one linked to above, is available at
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
It’s an interesting read.
There’s also RMS’s personal page at
http://www.stallman.org/
And, of course, the GNU/Free Software Foundation page, at
http://www.gnu.org
I thought this was a joke when I first read it…
seriously, if this crap starts happening, I’m switching to FreeBSD…
I agree the “K” app names are stupid. Right along with Be, i, e, g, etc. It does look childish and confusing.
Remember Activision in the early 80’s? Since the company was started by a geek, they gave credit where it was due. You could look at the programmers name on the box or in the commercial and get some idea of how good the game was based on his other games.
Even crackers have groups who pride themselves on their name and reputation. You know which groups know their stuff and which are script kiddies.
I like the idea of programmers as celebrities. They do more to help society than sports stars and every kid knows a few athletes names.
Music is a little different. I believe GOOD musicians have something to be proud of, but still, programmers deserve as much credit.
Put the credits in the “Help” menu “About the Authors”. Don’t force people to read your resume.