Agreed. It's very rare these days to find people who are willing to stick to their principles; we should respect those who do, rather than criticize them for
not compromising on their principles[0].
From your linked post:
> You are crossposting to two public project lists of the GNU project with
inflammatory language and mischaracterizations. You have been involved
with the GNU project long enough to be well aware that this kind of
crowbar approach does not lead to much more than headlines about Free
Software infighting.
ESR is doing little more than trolling here. He knows exactly where the FSF stands, and he knows exactly why that's not going to change (asking the FSF to do something that they believe hinders free software is like asking MADD to open a drive-through liquor store).
The FSF has always been very clear that they see the "open source" movement as complementary to (though not the same as) the free software movement, fighting for similar goals but for different reasons[1]. It's sad to see ESR, an "open source" advocate, actively try to fan the flames.
Nobody wins from this. Except advocates of closed, proprietary software.
[0] Of course, ESR knows exactly what he's doing here - the issue is that he disagrees with their principles, but instead of debating those, he'd rather attack them for executing on their principles rather than executing on his principles. It's a cheap rhetorical trick and a rather low move.
[1] "We don't think of the Open Source movement as an enemy. The enemy is proprietary software.", from https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.en..... (Don't be fooled by the title - the content of the article is very even-keeled).
From your linked post:
> You are crossposting to two public project lists of the GNU project with inflammatory language and mischaracterizations. You have been involved with the GNU project long enough to be well aware that this kind of crowbar approach does not lead to much more than headlines about Free Software infighting.
ESR is doing little more than trolling here. He knows exactly where the FSF stands, and he knows exactly why that's not going to change (asking the FSF to do something that they believe hinders free software is like asking MADD to open a drive-through liquor store).
The FSF has always been very clear that they see the "open source" movement as complementary to (though not the same as) the free software movement, fighting for similar goals but for different reasons[1]. It's sad to see ESR, an "open source" advocate, actively try to fan the flames.
Nobody wins from this. Except advocates of closed, proprietary software.
[0] Of course, ESR knows exactly what he's doing here - the issue is that he disagrees with their principles, but instead of debating those, he'd rather attack them for executing on their principles rather than executing on his principles. It's a cheap rhetorical trick and a rather low move.
[1] "We don't think of the Open Source movement as an enemy. The enemy is proprietary software.", from https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.en..... (Don't be fooled by the title - the content of the article is very even-keeled).