Re: theo spites face, seeks new nose

begin  Navindra Umanee's  quote:

| The Linux kernel bunch are fast and loose bunch and will and do and
| say as they pretty much please.  If you think Theo is a jerk (to
| put it nicely), no doubt you easily can find contenders for the
| title in the Linux group.  Certainly none of them will keep their
| mouth shut to please DARPA.  For example, Alan Cox has already more
| than once expressed anti-American-policy sentiments.  Very loudly.

which to me suggests that the u.s. government is not provocative in 
such matters. there is of course no doubt that it believes that more 
secure systems are of benefit to it, to businesses in the u.s., and 
to others, as is promotion of a non-monopoly operating system. that 
having been said, it has not taken offense and withdrawn in the face 
of anti-american views.

| My point is that DARPA can't expect Joe Random Hacker doing Open
| Source software to act the same way a closed company under a
| contract would.  And of course, certainly, Theo should have
| expected what he got.

i agree entirely; indeed, i think that that's why the government is 
interested in both *bsd and linux. the distinction here is that the 
denunciation was specifically tied to the government's involvement.

there is, too, the matter of licensing. there are those who would 
probably be mortified the extent to which embedded linux is used in 
the precision-guided weapons currently in use. (i've been chasing the 
story on this; it is not complete yet and probably won't be for 
awhile.) but the gpl by its very nature may not dictate the purposes 
toward which linux is put. another issue, i know, but related.

theo's "screw darpa" was just a little *too* blatant, i think. there 
are lots of projects fighting over grant money, and "give it to me 
even though i hate you" is probably not the best way to get 
financing, even as going to a bank to borrow money so as to buy the 
guns with which to rob the bank is probably not a winning strategy.
-- 
dep

http://www.linuxandmain.com -- outside the box, barely within
the envelope, and no animated paperclip anywhere.

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