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GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

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Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#11

Post by dalke »

marcoamorales wrote: post #8
algorias wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the open source movement overlap quite heavily with the ideals of free software? I know there are also significant differences, specially the tolerance of proprietary code. I'm not trying to start a flamewar here, just honestly curious why you think a 3rd alternative would bring change in any meaningful way. We have enough fragmentation as things stand.

They do overlap, but Open Source Initiative doesn't care at all about users' freedoms, which I personally believe to be very important.

Agreed. It took a while for me to understand the idea that the free/open source difference is reasonably described as the difference between user freedoms and developer freedoms.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#12

Post by dlisboa »

af3 wrote: post #4
marcoamorales wrote: post #2

As someone who shares beliefs with FSF's ideals, reading this rant makes me think that maybe there's a chance to bring up another movement with the relative same ideals as Free Software but have a different type of leadership.

why bringing something up? [1] just fork, code and... maybe make profit. [2] [1] http://xkcd.com/927/ [2] http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/A_Brief_History_of_Red_H...

Because organization is important. There's more to software distribution than coding and the legal basis of it all is unifying for most free software. Some times you cannot "just fork, code" because the underlying legal framework for your software is broken, and you're forced to reinvent the wheel.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#13

Post by dillona »

dalke wrote: post #10
af3 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why bringing something up? [1] just fork, code and... maybe make profit. [2] [1] http://xkcd.com/927/ [2] http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/A_Brief_History_of_Red_H...

Or Ubuntu? ;)

Shuttleworth is the last person I want to leave my fate up to. He is even after RMS.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#14

Post by btilly »

algorias wrote: post #5
marcoamorales wrote: post #2

As someone who shares beliefs with FSF's ideals, reading this rant makes me think that maybe there's a chance to bring up another movement with the relative same ideals as Free Software but have a different type of leadership.

Doesn't the open source movement overlap quite heavily with the ideals of free software? I know there are also significant differences, specially the tolerance of proprietary code. I'm not trying to start a flamewar here, just honestly curious why you think a 3rd alternative would bring change in any meaningful way. We have enough fragmentation as things stand.

Doesn't the open source movement overlap quite heavily with the ideals of free software?

Not really.

Open source can be described as a marketing campaign to convince people who don't care about free software to produce/accept it. The catch is that the people who are most attracted to that marketing campaign are attracted precisely because they do not care about free software ideals. Even worse, when you're motivated by something fundamentally different than the GNU manifesto, your actions will not always fit that manifesto.

An example of the difference is the use of permissive licenses. Someone who is into open source will often like permissive licenses because they let them reuse open source code in proprietary code. A free software supporter, by contrast, will avoid permissive licenses for the same reason.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#16

Post by dfc »

I have been a FSF supporter for a very long time. That being said I have never understood why the gnu-prog-discuss mailing list is so secretive. I can understand having restrictions on posting but I have bever heard a good argument for keeping the discussions behind closed doors. I do not think SPI has any cabalistic mailing lists.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#17

Post by dfc »

pestaa wrote: post #3

I made a few vague observations based on comments scattered around the web and this rant just made me want to write them down. * GNU leadership seemed very stubborn from the beginning. * GNU software is really great. * Gnome is the new GNU. I wish they wouldn't lose more momentum or the wide variety of software they write and maintain will suffer, too.

"Gnome is the new GNU"

I have heard this before but never really understood what it was supposed to convey? Is this statement purely from a technical viewpoint? Has Gnome done a lot of work with licensing and activism that I have not heard about?

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#18

Post by af3 »

dlisboa wrote: post #12
af3 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why bringing something up? [1] just fork, code and... maybe make profit. [2] [1] http://xkcd.com/927/ [2] http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/A_Brief_History_of_Red_H...

Because organization is important. There's more to software distribution than coding and the legal basis of it all is unifying for most free software. Some times you cannot "just fork, code" because the underlying legal framework for your software is broken, and you're forced to reinvent the wheel.

the license under which code is released is important, the rest are excuses.

Re: GNU sed 4.2.2 released, maintainer resigns

#19

Post by piqufoh »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #6

Why is Stallman still BDFL if he hasn't contributed a meaningful amount of code in years? Let him be the spokesperson so he gets the attention he desperately needs and leave the coding standards to people who code.

Agreed, but by definition BDFL is FL - For Life.
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