On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:22:56 +0100, "Paul de Weerd" <[email protected]> said:
> You brought it up and it was considered bullshit [...]
"Bullshit Software Distribution"? Thanks for the idea, but, as with
"Backdoor / Buggy / Broken / Blazing-slow Software Distribution" - it's
just too mean! I actually like OpenBSD! So what I'm brainstorming for
isn't a tease but more like a term of endearment, a nickname that can be
used by people who like OpenBSD but don't like Berkeley. I think the
self-referential "BSD Software Distribution" is the best so far.
> George Berkel[e]y.
The dodo behind Subjective Idealism?! Oh, great, thanks for bringing up
yet another reason for objectivists everywhere to hate the current name.
> So you seem to be a free software advocate, what with your copy free
> website and all. There you seem to agree with the principal of
> attribution, which I would argue the B in BSD is part of.
It's "Copyfree" (one word, contra Copyleft), and copyfree{dot}org is not
my site. It's run by Chad Perrin, an individual far more intelligent
than myself. I was thinking of helping out, but, as you can see, my
efforts to reconcile my philosophy with projects like OpenBSD don't seem
very promising at the moment...
Yes, I do believe in attribution, even for "public domain" content, but
not in eternally naming your project after whatever university where
some small and shrinking fraction of your downstream code has spend some
small and shrinking fraction of its history! OpenBSD was accomplished
by Theo and all the other contributors, and Berkeley's historic role is
hardly more significant than that of (B)ell Labs.
> What will you gain from changing the historic meaning of the letter B
> in BSD ? Would you change the meaning of your name ? It's heritage,
> OpenBSD is derived from the Berkeley Software Distribution. The guys
> there started this thing and created a community which is still alive
> today, even if they're not actively taking part in the development
> anymore. By now, OpenBSD is a name itself with a community of itself.
> Changing what the B stands for does not change anything from a
> practical standpoint. It only serves to deny the ancestry of the code
> and you've given no valid arguments to do so. That, plus all the
> alternatives you suggested merely show lack of creativity - you could
> at least try to be funny while trolling.
I've made my point. You don't like it - fine, but some fraction of
OpenBSD users don't like Berkeley, and there's nothing harmful about us
coming up with alternative unofficial nicknames for the project, and I
don't see why advocacy@ is a bad place to discuss this.
And, no, I can't be more funny while "trolling". All I have left is:
* Blowfish / Bubblefish / Balloonfish Software Distribution
* Bzip2's too new, stick with gzip for Software Distribution
* Better Security than Debian / DOS
* Bitchin' Secure Daemons
Why don't you suggest something better?
---
("Eric Furman" <[email protected]>, who've just e-mailed me a
mindless hateful rant, should be ignored - and possibly medicated.)
