When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H) [LWN.net]

When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)

Posted Jan 30, 2010 1:52 UTC (Sat) by donbarry (guest, #10485)
In reply to: When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H) by Kit
Parent article: When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)

"the only *interesting* piece" ?

Sure, the only interesting piece is the uI -- and how it may grow. That demands
freedom. Freedom to inspect, alter, share, study, distribute the source. Freedom to
recompile it and get it to actually run on the device. In short, the freedoms that rms
identified that we should insist on. To say that the only interesting piece is the UI
without talking about its growth is to lock oneself into a computer era which never
changes, and to accept that which is granted to us gratefully.

We call such mammals sheep.

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When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)

Posted Jan 30, 2010 2:19 UTC (Sat) by Kit (guest, #55925) [Link] (2 responses)

> Sure, the only interesting piece is the uI -- and how it may grow.

I don't particularly see how "how it may grow" is really related to the conversation. The closest I can fathom is that you're implying that because Android is less free (either because of its development model, or because it can be locked down), we should be more critical of it in ways we wouldn't have otherwise cared, though that's mostly just a wild guess.

> We call such mammals sheep.

Everyones a sheep when it comes to something. It's simply impossible to give a damn about everything that matters in life (doubly so if you want to accomplish anything), so we pick our battles. I don't see how not being all that concerned about the license of your software makes one worthy of being called names.

When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)

Posted Jan 30, 2010 3:39 UTC (Sat) by viro (subscriber, #7872) [Link] (1 responses)

You are arguing either with a Markov chain or with an MBA; either way it's pointless, even if its sheep-related fantasies are somewhat fascinating.

When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)

Posted Jan 30, 2010 5:42 UTC (Sat) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]

I think this may be the best response I have ever seen.