Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 9:29 UTC (Wed) by AndreE (guest, #60148)
Parent article: Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Well it's no surprise that Linus doesn't really care that much about Free Software. It's also no surprise that he doesn't see or doesn't value the ethical motivations underpinning Free Software.

What I don't quite get is why this makes him so "mad". If he really doesn't care, then why does he care that I care? It's a very peculiar form of subjectivism if you say that everyone is entitled to their own set of values, and then get mad when people promote different values to your own.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 9:46 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

The problem usually is that the people promoting that are often being abrasive and pushy to the point that it sometimes pisses off others ("you are a immoral person for using proprietary software" etc). Sometimes it happens to be people who mostly agree even.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 10:18 UTC (Wed) by fb (guest, #53265) [Link] (5 responses)

> It's a very peculiar form of subjectivism if you say that everyone is entitled to their own set of values, and then get mad when people promote different values to your own.

I may think that everyone is free to make their own religious choices, and still get annoyed if people are constantly knocking on my door to convert me to something, or calling me immoral (in an absolute sense) if I don't abide to their moral choices.

FWIW, if there is anything I consider truly sad in the FOSS crowd is the abrasive and loud manichaeism with which some people look at software licenses.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 10:54 UTC (Wed) by AndreE (guest, #60148) [Link] (4 responses)

Right.

But none of that is actually what Linus has said in the interview.

He says he gets mad when people see software choice as an ethical choice. He doesn't say that he gets mad when people take it too far, or are too abrasive, or too inflexible.

I quote:

"Trying to push any particular license as "the ethical choice" just makes me mad. Really."

The implication of this is that he doesn't see any significant ethical issues concerning software and copyright that free software. And he's mad that people believe that it is a question of ethics, and mad that people advocate.

Well, that's just mad, really.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 11:50 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link]

Key: "Trying to push"

It is clear exactly what Linus said in the interview.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 4, 2011 13:14 UTC (Wed) by gowen (guest, #23914) [Link]

I don't think he's mad that people advocate, he's just mad that those people who do advocate certain licenses tend to imply that anyone who doesn't agree with them is a bad person, and commiting an absolute moral wrong. And he's right too.

Advocating is fine - casting those who disagree with you as bad people is not fine.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 5, 2011 18:30 UTC (Thu) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (1 responses)

Another way to put it would be that he gets mad when people push a particular license as *the only* ethical choice, rather than one of many ethical choices. He doesn't like being told that someone else's ethics are the only correct ones.

Interview with Linus Torvalds (LinuxFR)

Posted May 5, 2011 18:59 UTC (Thu) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

You can't have human behavior without some ethics that are relevant to it, but just because you have ethical beliefs about software licensing doesn't mean that you have the same ethical beliefs as Richard Stallman. That's like saying that if you don't believe in eating veal, you have to eat vegan, or if you don't believe in eating endangered species you have to refuse to eat GMO foods. (more)