Subject: Talkback about flame wars being substitute for capitalistic cutthroat competition

From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:13:55 +0300

The talkback
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/top_4_internet_flame_wars_
+around_free_software#comment-76576
of an article about four famous Free Software related religious wars -
has, among other things, the following passage (quoted out of context):
"these debates (for want of a better word) propel the FSF Community
towards greater heights, replacing, in effect, competition between
companies"

This is an interesting thought.

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From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:08:47 +0300

> +around_free_software#comment-76576

This URL is broken into two. Here's the correct, unbroken URL:

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/top_4_internet_flame_wars_+around_free_software#comment-76576

And here's a shortened URL: http://xrl.us/onun9

> towards greater heights, replacing, in effect, competition between

That put aside, the author claims that Linus Torvalds belongs on the Emacs 
side of the "Emacs vs. Vi" war, but in fact, he's using MicroEmacs. See:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/linus/

I should also note that "Vim is Not Vi"<tm>, and has transcended above it. So 
the "Emacs vs. Vi" holy war is old-school.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
Original Riddles - http://www.shlomifish.org/puzzles/

Shlomi, so what are you working on? Working on a new wiki about unit testing 
fortunes in freecell? -- Ran Eilam

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From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:14:17 +0300

The comments below look to me to be of nitpicking nature.
The important point of my original posting was that the religious wars
are the Free Software substitute to capitalist competition.

I suppose that KDE and Gnome both benefitted from the religious war
between them, and I wouldn't be surprised if vim turns out to have
learned from emacs what features need to be added.

                                            --- Omer

-- 
Every good master plan involves building a time machine.  Moshe Zadka
My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/

---

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:09:26 +0300

> This is an interesting thought.

Indeed. However, it should be clear where the parallel ends: Competition
between companies isn't just about you (as a company) being better than the
others. It also involves trying to keep the other companies not as good as
you, by employing tactics like trade secrets, NDAs, patents, and so on.

With competition between free software projects, you have no (acceptable) way
to put your competitor down - basically, any code you write, any idea you
have, this competitor is free to copy from you.

This is what makes, I think, free software so much more interesting than the
commercial software world.

By the way, with free software, the stakes are also difference. A company
has a lot to lose by losing market share to a competitor. What does Richard
Stallman care if 10%, 50% or 90% of the people chose his Emacs over Vi?
I mean, it makes you feel good all over to know that many people benefit from
what you did, but do people really care if 90% or "just" 10% of the users
use the code you wrote? Does Bram Molenaar keep awake at night trying to
devise ways to push the balance more to the vi side, or just improves vim
because he really loves vim?

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |          Sunday, Aug 17 2008, 17 Av 5768
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Linux: Because a PC is a terrible thing
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