Hi,
I pondered a reply to this for some days. I originally read Richard
Stallman's blog post and just kept my mouth shut. But after the
discussion here on the mailing list, I'll state my opinion with some
context.
"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved
what I did." - (Steve Jobs, 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford)
The death of Steve stirred our souls quite a bit. We have seen in this
thread a lot of heat, regret and praise mixed together.
Personally, I think Steve left an incredible trace in the personal and
portable computing industry. He invented or, sometimes, discovered
inventions of others and made them usable and widespread. Two things
that are not the same, but which both leave a trace.
Every great man, being only human, will have shadows in his work. I
think it is correct, at the moment of his death, to remember the
luminous deeds, not the dark ones. Why judge, especially the day of
death? Let us defer judgement when tempers have cooled down.
This is to say that I disagree with our GNU leader, Mr. Stallman,
especially in the manners and moment of his opinions. I can understand
his reasoning, I know the dislikes and I also share his disagreement
with certain things that Apple and Jobs introduced and widespread.
But I find his words inappropriate and especially the timing of his
warning is of bad taste. This is, again, my personal opinion. But from a
leader of a great movement like the FSF I'd expect more.
Expressing those opinions in that way and in that moment, did more harm
than good. I hope other people won't be scared away from GNU because of
his temper.
GNU is made of many persons and sharing code and work for GNU is sharing
it with anyone of "us".
Let me put everything in perspective. GNUstep.
We are the children of NeXTStep and OpenStep. These were in my opinion
some of the finest things Jobs contributed to computing. I am deeply
convinced that without Jobs, there would be no GNUstep! We carry on his
spirit (perhaps better than what Apple does today) and the ideas,
concepts he have out.
Without wanting to remove merit from open source projects, many clone,
copy, implement, enhance and get inspired existing commercial works.
Sometimes the open-source project would have followed another project,
but sometimes it would have not existed at all or in a shape we wouldn't
recognize it. KDE and GNOME without Windows or CDE?
We are also GNU-step. I don't want to minimize the merits of the FSF, of
the GNU project of which I am proudly part. We achieved great things as
GNUstep and as GNU as a whole. But I want to be able to remain proud of
being part of GNU. We shall use "bon ton" and "common sense" when
expressing our opinions and feelings.
I am working with the spirit of NeXT since almost 10 years with and for
the GNUstep project. I think we have have more NeXT spirit than recent
Apple. This passion has to mean something and it shall not diminish.
We should learn from Jobs himself: let us bright ideas and passion guide
us. Not anger.
Riccardo
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