I arrived to the RMS lecture by a ride given to me from TAU by Yedidia
Bar-David (thanks Didi!) and another TAU worker. On the way we talked
about UNIXes, Linux and other stuff.
After we arrived it took some time to find the suitable parking lot, but
then we were instructed to come to the meeting room. There we mingled with
some people. Of the people I had already known by face I can name Ira
Abramove, Gabor Szabo and Adi Stav and maybe a few others. Many prominent
figures of the Israeli free software scene were missing, though.
Eventuall Richard arrived, brought some books he wanted to sell to us to
make some money as some GNU and Linux stickers and some brochures. Then
the lecture started.
Stallman is a very captivating, amusing and occasionally funny lecturer,
and kept us captivated. The lecture brought me new insights. After the
lecture, he asked us to ask him some questions. Here are some I can
remember:
Q: (by me) What is your opinion on vendors like Qt who distribute their
software as GPL, but license it for proprietary software under a different
license?
A: I have nothing against them. However, I'd like my GPLed software to be
available only for use by free software and so don't usually allow it to
be linked against proprietary software.
Q: Why should I not call my system GNU/Linux/X/KDE/Samba/whatever.
A: You are right that they deserve credit. But GNU is the largest part of
the system. Calling it Linux, which is a relatively small part of it does
damage to the system as a whole. (or something like that)
Q (by me): What do you think of Eric Raymond's "the Cathedral and the
Bazaar" series?
A: I do not concern myself with development models. Whatever development
model suits you - is good for you. All I care is that the software will be
free.
And many others which I forgot, but may remember later, or other members
can fill me in.
After that we got a little time to mingle with him. Stallman is a very
friendly guy who is pleasant to talk to. He is insistant on various issues
(free software vs. open-source; GNU/Linux vs. Linux) and likes to
constantly correct you about them. It is also impossible to convince him
on anything.
I talked to him a bit about various matters (which I might put in my
diary, but are of no concern here). From my impression of his net-persona,
(from E-mail transactions, and posts he did) it is quite the opposite of
his charming real-life ways.
One thing I should note is that he mentioned that he found his visit to
Israel disappointing because about a 1000 people heard of open-source in
the IBM Conference in TAU and only 200 arrived for his lecture in
Petach-Tikva. I wish sometimes he was less obsessed with free software,
but that's another thing I find it hopeless to remedy in him.
I was eventually given a ride to Ramat-Hasharon where I took the 24 bus to
my neighbourhood, and arrived home at about 21:00.
All in all, the day was very enjoyable and fullfilled all my expectations
and then some.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Home E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Let's suppose you have a table with 2^n cups..."
"Wait a second - is n a natural number?"
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