RMS Accused Of Attempting Glibc Hostile Takeover

Bram Stolk sent a bit in thats been floating around lately where Ulrich Drepper, glibc maintainer announces the new version, and sidetracks to discuss an an RMS takeover attempt and how he feels about it. He raises several good points and I tend to agree with him. The FSF has done, and continues to do so much good, but more and more tension continues to grow between the extreme free speech faction and the more moderate folks. People have asked my opinion, and I'll just leave it by saying I don't prefix "Linux" with those 3 little letters and a slash even tho I've been asked.

Re:Thought Police

[ChaosDiscord]

Freedom of speech includes the freedom to complain loudly about other's speech. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to be as anal and vitrolic as you want. So what's the problem?

Re:Thought Police

[Amon Re]

I will probably be the only here to defend RMS, but I totally agree with Linux being called GNU/Linux when talking about an entire distribution instead of just the kernel. You are ignoring the work of a lot of developers by just calling it Linux. And I know people will say "We should call it Xfree86/BSD/GNU/Linux then." Well Xfree86 and a lot of the BSD code isn't needed at all to get an operating system up and running. GNU and Linux represent the core that is needed.

Re:Hipocricy [sic] of Mr. Taco

[Reality Master 101]

we all know that he's as big a FSF/GPL zealot as they get.

I'm necessarily defending Taco, but it does say something that he doesn't use the idiotic "GNU/Linux" tag. At the very least, he could be a bigger> FSF/GPL zealot. :)

Re:Hipocricy of Mr. Taco

[MicroBerto]

This is quite possibly the lamest slashdot thread I've ever read. Not just this one post, but the entire page. You guys really need to look at what you're posting, and realize something:

You need lives.

Bertoline! [apk.net]

Re:Stallman....

[sharkey]

...rename itself to the Canberra GNU/Linux Users Group. This did not go down well.

But then you could call yourselves "C-GLUG", and make beer a staple part of your group.

Re:Thought Police

[Your Login Here]

But you're insisting on including redundant informantion. If I say I'm using Win98 people know I'm using Microsoft Windows 98 on an x86 based system.

Similarly, if I say I'm using Linux people know that I'm using a Linux kernel with GNU libs and utils.

You might argue that people should call it GNU but there's GNU/Hurd to cause confusion. Also if you use the word GNU too much someone walking by might jump in with a random wildebeest story.

I'll bet Microsoft loves this.

[MarkusQ]

I'll bet Microsoft loves this whole "debate."

Imagine their war room--one whole wall is a giant whiteboard, filled with a huge grid. Each week a top PR droid goes over and picks a blank cell. They make a few phone calls, and by the end of the week Eris has drawn a little golden apple in the cell.

I'll bet someone is on the phone right now, trying to get Ransome Love to say something ill-advised about fetchmail.

-- MarkusQ

Changing the GNU icon in /.

[Guppy06]

If we have Gates/Borg pic as the icon for MS, why not modify a pic of Stallman for the GNU icon? Maybe put a fuzzy hat on his head and give him a Stalin-esque mustache. Or maybe something inspired by C&C: Red Alert.

OK, now I'm thinking about using that Hell March tune from the game as the start-up sound in Gnome...

Re:Communism, Free Software

[Azza]

Hmm, and in the board game, Japan almost always wins... Scary.

Re:We built this Linux

[Talez]

Sorry... But I just HAD to do this :)

We Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U
Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U

Say you don't know me, or recognize my face.
Say you don't know this, command line interface.
Knee deep in the debug, coding for the fight.
Too many forkings, building in the night

Slashdot splits the factions, listen to them bitch an moan, don't you remember.
We built this Linux, We built this Linux on G-N-U

We Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U
Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U

Microsoft's always playing corporation games.
Who cares they're always changing, licensing games.
We just want to code here, no compiler is a cage.
They call us irresponsible, then fill up the page.

Slashdot splits the factions, listen to them bitch an moan, don't you remember.
We built this Linux, We built this Linux on G-N-U

Its just another Sunday, and were tired on the street
You just lost your kernel, and you just lost your beat.

Who counts the money, for the people on the bar?
Who codes an editor, in two wild compiles!
Don't tell us you need us you need us, cause you're the simple fools.
Looking for an OS, coming through universities and schools.

Slashdot splits the factions, listen to them bitch an moan, don't you remember.
We built this Linux, We built this Linux on G-N-U

We Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U
Built this Linux, We built this linux on G-N-U

(repeat ad nauseam)

Its a bit... incoherent... in parts... but I think a couple of people might get a laugh :)

Talez

Re:Thought Police

[Your_Mom]

What is not part of the operating system?

- GUI
- web browser
- office suite
- your mom

Awww man, I wanted to be part of the operating system! How dare you treat your own mom this way!

Re:Thought Police

[spudnic]

I say Linux because I don't know how to say GNU.

"I pronounce GNU, GNU"

So where's the GNU.au?

Re:At MIT too

[mkcmkc]

He shows up at the Boston Computer Society Linux and UNIX users group, and of course demands that the group rename itself to the GNU-slash-Linux users group.

Okay, I'll bite. Exactly how did he "demand" this? What were his words? How were they said? Did he say something like "I am Richard Stallman, your god, and I demand that you change the name of this group as I decree". That doesn't ring true.

Are you sure he wasn't just arguing in favor of it (perhaps in a poorly chosen way)?

--Mike

Re:Stallman....

[sv0f]

When I do this, some people think it's because I want my ego to be fed. Of course, it's not like I'm asking you to call it Stallmanix.

Nice try. This must be a forgery.

It's a bit too glib, see?

Re:Hipocricy of Mr. Taco

[slashdot_commentator]

M$ Bob, this is Slashdot. Its not NPR, and he's not supposed to be Walter Cronkite. If Taco wants to make a tongue-in-cheek observation, he's damn well entitled to do so, without your post-menstrual whining.

And a guy who can't properly spell hypocrisy and has a userid greater than 300000 really shouldn't try to condescend to CmdrTaco...

Re:"Richard Stallman, Principal developer of 'Linu

[alienmole]

Nah, RMS only developed the bits that suck. The cool stuff was developed by some Finnish guy.

Maybe they could compromise

[Angelwrath]

If Stallman wants proper credit given to GNU/Linux, and he contributed so much to GNU, I say we combine Stallman and Linux to give both central figures credit to the OS.

We will now call it "Stallinux".

D'OH!

blech

[underpaidISPtech]

Urrgh, my stomch is turning. I'm sure most people have already seen this, but it seems fitting, especially the UNIX part. You won't see Linux on the desktop with all this infighting going on anytime soon guys. Look, The reason I tried Linux was because it got alot of media coverage. I never would have heard of it otherwise. Had I really wanted a free *nix OS, *BSD's are widely available, just not getting alot of media coverage. Fuck it. I'm not using Linux to further a political agenda, OK? I'm using it because it gets the job done. Hell, my tinkerbox is running Linux, my server is running FreeBSD. The reason MS and Apple are everywhere is because they are chasing dollars, not converts. GNU/Linux will not see the desktop running KDE/Gnome Mozilla/Konqueror/Opera whatever the hell, because without unity, you will simply eat each other alive. Users are fuckin clueless, and want no part of of a holy war. They want to complete their spreadsheet and go the fuck home. So, Linux/GNU/RMS zealots - go and take your stuff and create your dreams. People that want to create for profit/fun, sans political jihads -- go use whatever the hell you want. Now, can we just friggin' concentrate on using the damn hardware/software to get some bloody work done, on whatever goddamn platform it is you use. Honestly, unless you are GOD, you will not code, create or be responsible for the One True OS©. BG is laughing his ass of right now. What company wants to get blindsided down the road using a bunch of software hijacked through licensing terms by a small group of zealots? All your software are belong to us. No different than MS. FUCKIN POLAR OPPOSITES, SAME RESULT. God this shit pisses me off. Same fucking mentality behind Fascism, Naziism, and Communism. No guns here folks, just lawyers shielding the personal agendas of extremists. [begins to morph into The Hulk... URGGGHHH]

If Operating Systems Were Airlines

DOS Air

Passengers out onto the runway, grab hold of the plane, push it until it gets into the air, hop on, then jump off when it hits the ground. They grab the plane again, push it back into the air, hop on, jump of...

MAC Airways

The cashiers, flight attendants, and pilots all look the same, and act the same. When you ask them questions about the flight, they reply that you don't want to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

Windows Airlines

The terminal is neat and clen, the attendants courteous, the pilots capable. The fleet of Lear jets the carrier operates is immense. Your jet takes off without a hitch, pushes above the clouds, and at 20,000 feet, explodes without warning.

Fly Windows NT

Passengers carry their seats out onto the tarmac and place them in the outline of a plane. They sit down, flap their arms, and make jet swooshing sounds as if they are flying.

Unix Express

Passengers bring a piece of the airplane and a box of tools with them to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing about what kind of plane they want to build. The passengers split into groups and build several different aircraft but give them all the same name. Only some passengers reach their destination, but all of them believe they arrived.

Re:Thought Police

[Arandir]

...the GNU environment doesn't necessarily mean software written by Stallman/FSF--just that he considered it Free and fit to include in a definition of a Free environment.

What a bizarre definition! Absolutely meaningless of course. Just because RMS says that something is GNU does not make it so. GNU has chosen to consider XFree86 to be a part of GNU System. But that does not make XFree86 GNU software.

Since stallman observed that the environment he likes to call GNU has been wrapped around the Linux kernal, he chooses to call it GNU/Linux.

Well I just observed that the environment I like to call FRED is being used by the GNU Project, so I will choose to call it FRED/GNU.

Re:GNU is Not UNIX or Linux. but Linux needs ' GNU

[sheldon]

None of YOUR software would be possible without the great wisdom of RMS!

I'll bet you didn't realize that we never thought about sharing source code to software until RMS and GNU came along, did ya?

Yep, this is flame bait. :)

Re:RMS has his reasons

[CmdrTaco on]

By "F", I'm sure you meant F*dge. We here on slashdot do not approve or condone such language. Please refrain from using it in the future. Thank you, and God bless ESR.