More Lame Excuses

More Lame Excuses

All of that completely misses the point. No one is disputing free speech rights or advocating censorship. Nor is the problem in this case that some opinions might be unrepresented in the feedback process. Regardless of what Torvalds might think about Stallman, snubbing him in response to evidence of open mindedness is counterproductive. And since compromise requires sacrifice on both sides, someone who refuses to come to the table without assurance that a particular position will ultimately be adopted doesn't occupy the moral high ground. Someone who wanted good results, rather than cheap media attention, would have made an honest effort.

Unlike Perens, who emphasized the positive aspects of the GPLv3 process, Torvalds allowed his reputation to be used by Forbes for sensational purposes and created public relations problems the Free Software Foundation doesn't need. That's a poor substitute for direct communication and an oddly political gesture from a fellow who claims to hate politics. Alan Cox demonstrates how a person who actually doesn't want to stir up drama handles things by refusing to predict what license the kernel will use in the future on the basis of an unfinished draft and pointing out that the kernel developers will eventually make a choice as a community.

All of this should be easy to grasp for anyone who isn't determined to think of Stallman and the GNU GPL in negative terms regardless of the circumstances.