Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 9 Jan 2003 02:54:53 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 9 Jan 2003 02:54:52 -0500 Received: from fep02-mail.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com ([66.185.86.72]:14882 "EHLO fep02-mail.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Thu, 9 Jan 2003 02:54:52 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII From: "Dimitrie O. Paun" Reply-To: dpaun@rogers.com Organization: DSSD Software Inc. To: rms@gnu.org Subject: Re: Nvidia and its choice to read the GPL "differently" Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 01:44:35 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.4.3 Cc: lm@bitmover.com, acahalan@cs.uml.edu, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <200301050802.h0582u4214558@saturn.cs.uml.edu> <200301071118.41059.dpaun@rogers.com> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Message-Id: <200301090144.35808.dpaun@rogers.com> X-Authentication-Info: Submitted using SMTP AUTH LOGIN at fep02-mail.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com from [24.103.156.204] using ID at Thu, 9 Jan 2003 03:02:44 -0500 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2059 Lines: 41 On January 9, 2003 02:28 am, Richard Stallman wrote: > These discussions will never convince those people, but they do win > support from others who read both sides and find that we have right on > our side. So we have something to gain. I have not touched upon the principle side of things on purpose: what I'm trying to say is that it does not matter how's right or wrong. Yes, you can say your campain gains people on the GNU/Linux side, and you are correct -- it would in any case, it's just the law of large numbers. You can view that as a gain, and I don't dispute that, but that gain comes at a huge price: you greatly erode your credibility and stature within the community. You can use your influence within the community in ways that would server the FSF a _lot_ more effectively. Yes, you will say, but we are _right_. Well, you might be. But the world is not a fair place, and sometimes you have to accept that. There is unfairness all over the place: you take credit for other people's work by putting under the GNU umbrella a lot of stuff you did not write. That's unfair. Is it fair that Alexandre Julliard, the Wine (http://www.winehq.org) project leader is listed in a list together with 200+ other developers that contributed a tiny fraction of what Alexandre did? No, it's not. There are endless examples of these in the free software world. Once can not simply state the names and importance (and _how_ would you gauge *that*?) of every single contributor when you refer to the system. And because people like a simple mnemonic, they chose one: Linux. You would have liked they pick the acronym you invented, but they didn't. People have chosen. It's a tiny detail in the grand scheme of things, let's be all happy that a catchy acronym was invented and addopted, and move on! -- Dimi. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/