<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jul 4, 2005, at 7:55 PM, Jacob wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dan Clemmensen wrote:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Many posts on Slashdot refer to Stallman as a nut-case. Slashdot does<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">does not</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">support Stallman. It supports Nerds. Many (Most?) Slashdot readers<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">prefer the more</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">pragmatic "Open Source" approach to Stalmans's "free software" concept, and</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Stallman's insistence on the "GNU/Linux" nomenclature is clearly very</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">irritating to a large portion of the Slashdot community.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">As a slashdotter myself, I concur.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Men like Mr. Stallman and Mr. Perens</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">seem to be under the impression that all software should be open, going</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">as far as proposing legislation.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>I personally believe it should be up</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">to the individual.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I do not concur. RS and Perens both believe strongly in the right of creators to decide how to offer their creation. They believe that non-open software is more or less immoral but not that everyone should be forced to offer their software creations under licenses of their liking. Besides, the issue from an extropian viewpoint is one of what forms of licensing of what kinds of software under what circumstances expand extropy. That this or that original light or exponent of Free/Open Software has opinions distasteful to some of us is not terribly important. </DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Slashdot itself tends to be a very diverse group.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>It is geared more</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">towards the open source/Linux crowd, but it is far more diverse than</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">simply that.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>I take everything I read on there with a grain of salt</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">anyways.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>The posts range from the good and useful all the way to the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">utterly useless.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>I am often surprised by the gibbering monkey chatter level and the seeming serious level of ignorance. I am also surprised to encounter a lot of young geeks who seem to have not a clue of how fast technology is changing the world and possess no positive vision (to say the least). It seems to be uncool to dream and seek to make the dream real.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>- samantha</DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></BODY></HTML>