There are two RMSes [LWN.net]

There are two RMSes

Posted Jul 17, 2009 20:38 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: The FSF warns (again) against Mono by mikov
Parent article: The FSF warns (again) against Mono

Anything that RMS or the FSF says is usually grounded in solid logic. Everybody would be wise to at least consider it.

RMS (like Drepper) exist in two modes: free-flowing conversations and essays. While in mailing list and other fast-moving forums RMS and Drepper looks abrasive, arrogant and (quite often) just plain wrong with essays and articles we have different situation altogether. There every word is carefully cosidered and aligned to the rest of the article and it's very hard to find actual loopholes or errors.

Funny how two persons who hate each other so much can be so similar...

And yes, you can hate RMS's guts but you can rarely fault his logic when he does have time to carefully describe his position. And time and again reality shows that his worst fears have unfortunate habit of becoming true (often, but not always - Qt licensing issue was safely resolved, for example, but... can we be sure it's not result of GNOME existence?). After Tomcat's story we can safely forget Microsoft's "peace rhetoric" and so everyone should be vary of mono - this is known trojan horse. It's danger can be reduced and contained, but it'll never go away.

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There are two RMSes

Posted Jul 18, 2009 0:51 UTC (Sat) by sjj (guest, #2020) [Link]

+1
This is very well put.

RMS can sound like a stubborn, arrogant, pigheaded zealot (possibly because that's part of his makeup ;). But his arrogant, stubborn, pigheaded stick-to-it-ness changed the world. For the better. Not many of us can claim that. I've never met him, but if I do, I will thank him for his life's work and beg forgiveness for being one of those annoying anonymous people analyzing his personality on the internet.