RMS, previously, on Sun freeing java

[Ben Finney]

On 14-Nov-2006, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:
> I've always had the impression that people at Sun don't understand
> free software, but anyway we have to admit they have done huge
> contributions, maybe not in philosophy but at least in code. Maybe
> they're a bit erratic sometimes, but a lot of what they do is right,
> so let's take it and thank it while we do what we can to explain the
> rest to them.

A corporation loves to pretend that it has one mind and one voice, but
as I hope we all know, corporations are served by many minds with
disparate opinions and preferences for action. That a corporation
appears to have multiple-personality disorder should be no surprise.

As in so many other cases, this "sudden" good news mostly happened
because one person inside the corporation decided it should, and had
the long-term strength to ensure that it did, with the help of some
and despite the resistance of others.

    And I bet that nobody else will talk about this, so I will: there
    was internal resistance, and it was passionate. I disagreed, but I
    have a lot of respect for those people; they had good arguments
    that we need to keep carefully in mind, going forward. There are
    people who are bruised and hurting now and really unsure that this
    is the right path. I totally hope that, in a couple of years, this
    will be a tempest in a teapot, seen in the rear-view mirror, and
    that we’re still all on the same team.

    <URL:http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/11/12/OSS-Java#p-1>

-- 
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_o__)                                            alt.sysadmin.recovery |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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