[Solar-general] Fwd: [hipatia] Opiniones de Linus Torvalds

Jue Sep 21 15:49:15 CEST 2006

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Juan Carlos Gentile Fagundez <jucar en hipatia.net>
Date: 21-sep-2006 0:23
Subject: [hipatia] Opiniones de Linus Torvalds
To: coordinadores-hipatia en listas.hipatia.info

Torvalds lambasts Free Software Foundation

July 28, 2006 3:12 PM PDT

Linux leader Linus Torvalds had some sharp words about the Free
Software Foundation its founder, Richard Stallman, and his
philosophical motivations.

The foundation is updating the General Public License (GPL) that
governs thousands of open-source software projects, including the
Linux operating system kernel. Torvalds has explicitly chosen GPL
version 2 to govern Linux, and Torvalds' objections to GPLv3 drafts,
it appears unlikely he'll change that position.

Torvalds, though, objects not just to the terms of the new license,
but to the foundation's motivations, Stallman's philosophy, and the
process by which the foundation and its top lawyer, Eben Moglen, are
updating the GPL. In postings today to the Groklaw legal discussion
site--where issues often are hotly debated--Torvalds unleashed several
criticisms. (He confirmed the postings' authenticity in an e-mail to
CNET News.com.)

GPLv2 is about a "quid pro quo": If I give you my open-source
software, you're free to use it but must give the world back any
changes you make, Torvalds said. "The reason for the GPL as far as the
FSF is concerned was never 'fairness.' It was all about a higher
calling, and about something that the FSF thinks is much
bigger--'freedom,'" Torvalds said in one posting. "I disagree. I think
that 'freedom' is fine, but we're not exactly talking about slavery
here. Trying to make it look like we're the Abraham Lincoln of our
generation just makes us look stupid and stuck up. I'd much rather
talk about 'fairness' and about issues like just being a much better
process for generating better code, and having fun while doing so."

The GPLv3, Torvalds added, is "inferior" to its predecessor. "It's
purely a firebrand, and only good for the extremist policies of the
FSF," Torvalds said. "The FSF doesn't like that Linux in particular
turned the GPLv2 into something pragmatic. The GPLv3 is designed to
take the FSF back to its original 'good old days,' when 'Free
Software' was a war, and RMS (Stallman) was its proselytizing general.
But the fact is, it's not a war, and peaceful and happy co-existence
is actually much preferable to moral jihads."

"The FSF has been acting idiotic for the last decade. Why do you think
it's called 'open source' in the first place? Exactly because the FSF
has made a dirty word out of freedom,'" he said in another posting.
(The term "open-source software" was coined in the late 1990s to
describe an offshoot of "free software" movement.) "The people who are
spoiling for a fight are not the people who are actually getting
things done."

Torvalds said he believes fear is the impetus behind the new GPL.
"Every single big and fundamental addition to the GPLv3 is about hate
and fear," he said. And it's a bad motivation, he argued: "No good
code ever comes out of people who do things because they are afraid,
or because they hate. Look at all the idiotic choices that Sun
(Microsystems) has made with respect to Java and other things. A lot
of them seem to be directly a result not of trying to do the right
thing to their customer, but because of fear and loathing of their
competition."

The result: "The GPLv3 is a total disaster," Torvalds said in another post.

Torvalds also criticized the GPLv3 process. "So as far as I can tell,
the whole GPLv3 'process' has been a sham from the very beginning.
Eben and Richard talk about 'discussion drafts,' but it's not
'discussion' if you don't actually care what the other side says,"
Torvalds said. "And Richard most definitely doesn't care."
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