Who is being divisive? [LWN.net]

Who is being divisive?

Posted Nov 28, 2006 18:42 UTC (Tue) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625)
Parent article: Who is being divisive?

Some people are using the Novell/Microsoft deal as an example to help support previously held positions.

"If only people would stop doing Mono/GNOME/whatever and use Java/KDE/whatever"

"See, the GPL needs an upgrade"

I get this kind of thing from PR people all the time. Gas prices go up and a VPN company sends me a press release -- "working from home because of high gas prices? You need a VPN." For a while, whenever Sun released anything HP would put out a "Sun sux" press release and vice versa.

It's a common technique to try to hang your advocacy on someone else's news, but it's also pretty obvious.

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it's called the scientific method

Posted Nov 29, 2006 2:30 UTC (Wed) by stevenj (subscriber, #421) [Link]

That is, using new evidence to evaluate the accuracy of past predictions and recommendations.

If people were using the Novell thing to support both pro-Mono and pro-Java recommendations, or both pro-v3 and anti-v3 viewpoints, then you might have more of a point. Or if the Novell thing obviously had nothing to do with either Mono or the GPL. Or if you had some specific criticism of some specific argument connecting those issues with the Novell deal.

But as it stands, you seem to be objecting to little more than the basic principle of evaluating old theories in light of new evidence, one of the cornerstones of the Enlightenment.

it's called the scientific method

Posted Nov 29, 2006 10:02 UTC (Wed) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

Hmm, I think you are giving opinionaters a lot of credit, though it's true Don Marti isn't giving them much.

My personal experience leads me to believe Mr. Marti's guess is closer to the truth, but I would agree it's fair to point out there's a range of possibilities.