At 12:13 14/06/2007 +0100, you wrote:
>Damian Brasher wrote:
>>I have just acquired 'The Art of Unix Programming' by Eric Steven Raymond.
>>Looks very good so far and the combination of the technical and
>>philosophical is well presented. How the two are intrinsically linked is
>>illustrated well. Old ideas are making sense in a modern context - Linux.
>>I am dipping in and out of sections easily.
>>However and a big BUT:
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Raymond
>>This account of Eric Raymod is challenging (I struggle with this) and a
>>very good example of how personal politics and Linux philosophy (or Unix)
>>are two *very* different things. I am glad that Linux is very much a
>>collaborative effort.
>>Any thoughts...
I find any dogma off-putting, and much of ESR's attitude, at least for the
last decade or so (since I started noticing him) has seemed to me
increasingly dogmatic.
In many ways, although not all, I'm much closer to Linus' attitude: my
first concern is "what works?", not "what's free (beer/speech whatever!)?".
I prefer OSS, but I don't like to compromise on required capabilities in
order to only ever use OSS.
In an ideal, theoretical world, with OSS, there is not need to ever
compromise on capabilities, just extend/develop it yourself. Back in the
"real world", not all of us have the time or the expertise to do that. I'm
an experience developer better placed than many to do so, but I really
wouldn't know where to start with software for sound editing and manipulation.
There are other aspects of ESR's "politics" that I don't like - but you've
got to respect the guy, I doubt there would be OSS, and an lot of other
stuff that's built on the back of OSS, if it weren't for ESR.
All IMHO, of course!
Chris
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