Did RMS "start" this discussion? [LWN.net]

Did RMS "start" this discussion?

Posted Dec 20, 2007 2:14 UTC (Thu) by stevenj (guest, #421)
In reply to: Did RMS "start" this discussion? by drlark
Parent article: Insufficiently free?

Who could care less about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin

That's not really a fair comparison. Most of RMS's arguments have clear practical consequences. Most notably, his rejection of non-free software as unethical led directly to GNU. Similarly, the question here of whether a distro (whether BSD or GNU/Linux) should include packages to build specific pieces of non-free software also has clear practical consequences, whichever conclusion you agree with.

I do stand by my original assertion that flame wars like this add no value. Upset the community. And are generally non-productive.

You could argue that RMS is unlikely to persuade the OpenBSD developers, and he would probably be the first to agree with you—RMS always says that he never expects to succeed in anything he tries, but he does it anyway. However, if people are going to discuss his views on a mailing list in a thread started by someone else, you can hardly blame him for trying to make sure his views are accurately described (whether or not they are agreed with). After all, mailing list archives last virtually forever and are read by many people other than the OpenBSD developers.

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