Bruce Perens on the Status of Open Source 241
Lars Lehtonen writes to tell us that Bruce Perens has posted the text of his LinuxWorld press conference. In his talk he takes a look at many of the hot topics surrounding the open source community including ODF, NTP vs RIM, and GPLv3. From the article: "It's interesting to note that Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist implicated in scandal with Republican Tom Delay, was employed by Bill Gates' dad's law firm "Preston Gates", a political proxy for Microsoft. Microsoft succeeded in lobbying both Republicans and Democrats to oppose ODF."
Re:No It's Not Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
Not much yet. It's just a set of dots which, if they could be connected, would make a very interesting picture indeed. But I agree, the dots haven't been connected. Yet.
Abramoff pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, but didn't have much of anything to do with Microsoft or ODF.
Doesn't mean a thing.
The way this works is, the prosecutor targets a sleazeball who's got connections. He puts together a portfolio of charges on him that, if half of them were proved, would put Mr. Sleaze in jail for the half life of a proton. In exchange for only having to endure being sodomized for three or four years, Mr. Sleaze agrees to hand the prosecutor the ends of all the webs he's been holding.
Microsoft and the Gates family may be on the other end of one of those threads. Or they may not; or even if they are it may not in the prosecutor's view be the best place to start. The prosecutor might also decide to make examples of one or two individuals and leave it at that.
knows his stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, this is interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)
Perverse though it may be, lobbyists are one of three constitutionally protected professions in the United States. The First Amendment guarantees the right to "petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Unless you can get a constitutional amendment through, things are not going to change much.
For those who are interested, the other two professions are lawyers (the right to counsel) and journalists (the right to a free press).
Re:Yeah, this is interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, the rights granted to corporate entities are not enshrined in the Constitution: they are of much more recent vintage. If those were revoked or severely restricted, problems with undue influence in government might improve substantially. In any event, we aren't talking about "redress of grievances", in the sense that a organization is being unfairly impacted by the law. We are talking about corruption, pure and simple, businesses that have discovered that a little bribery in the right places can make them billions. Yes, it's true, Congress was always corrupt, even back in Colonial times. But somehow I doubt the Founders intended the Constitution to protect criminal activity on this scale.
Re:Mistaking "interesting" for "suspicious". (Score:5, Interesting)
Bruce
OSD pre-exists FSD (Score:3, Interesting)
Bruce
Conspiracy theory (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously, Mr. Bruce Perens couldn't have written a better script for Syriana II. I'll be blunt. ODF and GNUv3 rabbit hole doesn't go any deeper than the usual Bostonian political scuffle. Given enough spare time to ponder about politics, even Boston's Big-Dig project could be tided to Microsoft somehow.
C'mon. We all know Microsoft's deep pocket reaches everyone, but the speculation forgets to mention that Open Source isn't some entity a political spinhead can control. For instance, IBM vs. SCO. Even if Linux kernel violated SCO's patent, could anyone really stop Linux kernel development? I believe in self-governing body where countability is on each and everyone who's involved. With or without multibillion corporations pushing their own agendas, people like Linus who cares less about politics or profit (except free beer) or even public's opinion, make Open Source possible.
Mr. Bruce Perens, to me, sounds bitter and impatient how ODF and Open Source is being adapted around the country, and the world.
Re:No It's Not Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
I Would take that as a place where facts counts for more than suspicion.
Re:Desktop Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
Bruce
Amazing Spin. (Score:4, Interesting)
Who says that rate is slow? ODF is less than a year old. [wikipedia.org] Yet, two state governments have moved adopt it. Can you name any other technology state governments have adopted so quickly?
Let's look at what Peren is angry about again:
[Character Assasination via Boston Globe] ... Microsoft succeeded in lobbying both Republicans and Democrats to oppose ODF. ... There's a chilling effect that stems from the harassment of Quinn: other government CIOs are being scared away from the Open Format issue because now they know that Microsoft will do its best to end their careers if they even try.
That's hardly what you have charged.
I'd like to see you address any of that with more than insults and "say it aint so." The short of it is that M$ used it's money and influence to bamboozle decision makers, the public and other CTO's. The CTO's, who are more difficult to fool than the others, are being threatened. The facts of the case seem to support Perens on all of the above.
If you are not angry about the end of Quinn's career over file formats, you have not thought enough about it.
Re:Mistaking "interesting" for "suspicious". (Score:5, Interesting)
For me, it used to be that Open Source was #1. For Richard, Free Software always will be. For me now, being a dad is #1. And I find that I can look at Open Source with more objectivity because of this.
Bruce
Re:Abramoff (Score:3, Interesting)
Wird fact I read: Abramoff wrote "Red Scorpion", a movie produced basically by the South African secret service and the CIA. Interesting stuff: seems Abramoff got his start working as a factotum for the South African secret service goon squad.
Troll to Fox News watchers, maybe. Blindingly obvious to everyone else. Water's wet, news at 11.