Schwartz: Free advice for the litigious

Schwartz: Free advice for the litigious

Why do I feel comments from lwn.net have always been through a Anti-Sun glasses? Look at the comments here so far ... they're not fair, off-topic, and sometimes pure non-sense.

Are you familiar with the U.S. Civil War? That was a family spat.

Microsoft is mostly irrelevant, so far as advancing free software is concerned. They are a (relatively) temporary hindrance to computing. It is sport to point out their consistent misrepresentations and incompetence. No one really expects them to see the error of their ways, though.

That is not the case with Sun. Sun has been historically significant in scientific advances of computing. They went through a schizophrenic stage and appear to be coming to their senses. As long-term members of the family of free software, they must endure repeated backlashes for their discrepencies while acting as the 'black sheep'. Many free software developers cut their teeth on Sun systems. GNU tools were routinely installed there and used for development before Linux was created. "The network is the computer" was coined in 1984. Do a 'grep' on any GNU/Linux or Unix system and you'll find Sun there.

Instead of seeing "Anti-Sun", try viewing the criticisms as reproofs for behavior beneath the standard expected. Sun should know better. They're not hopeless like Microsoft.