Comments on: open source is a religion

By: Lee_pr

Lee_pr — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:24:04 +0000

Marhaba!
Check this out!
*

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:50:33 +0000

Forgive the comment necromancy, I saw this bit of hilariousness and thought of this entry of yours: http://xkcd.com/c225.html

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:50:35 +0000

@ Rick.
It might not make you a zealot. But judging from the way you write, “deluded idealist” works for me.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:31:35 +0000

I am an Open Source person.
I am a Free Software person.
I choose to believe in very simple values like freedom, and the sharing of knowledge.
In most circles that would make me an person with quite common beliefs.
In the MS-dominated software world it apparently makes me a zealot.
How odd.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 13 May 2007 17:58:53 +0000

Yes, jeff has the right words for our planet. We are all in this together.

By: Greg K Nicholson

Greg K Nicholson — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:56:10 +0000

Not quite—freedom is a principle, and all the non-believers are selfish bastards.
(Of course, this includes the freedom to sell stuff you’ve made with restrictions on what the buyer can do with it once they’ve bought it; as well as the freedom to choose not to buy such stuff, which can come only with the understanding of what you’re getting yourself in for if you do buy it,)

By: Mike Abundo

Mike Abundo — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:00:33 +0000

The nonbelievers already dwell in a living Hell.

By: Brian LeRoux

Brian LeRoux — Thu, 10 May 2007 08:42:13 +0000

Cute, but… who is the one preaching here?
I suppose because the ROI argument isn’t working you are trying to make things a religious debate. Its a good strategy to generate conversation, I suppose, but it feels a little low brow for you Hugh.
Here’s something interesting to consider: Microsoft creates and contributes to the open source community. They fuck around with it quite a bit (nUnit, nAnt, Novell, etc) but they do participate and very much benefit from it.
Given that open source is how software gets build, and closed source is one way sofware can be sold… why not explore the relationship between the ideas of community collaboration and proprietary business? Ideas around the powerful developer community inside and outside of the Microsoft ecosystem.
Developers enable that company and this line of thinking pisses many of us off. It insults us and our work. Enough of the polarization bullshit. It’s not a black and white issue. Have some class and step it up a notch and effect some positive change.

By: Andrew Peek

Andrew Peek — Thu, 10 May 2007 07:50:26 +0000

Please make this a business card.

By: Alasdair

Alasdair — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:17:08 +0000

I disagree hugh, just like the real church you would do well to separate sin and morality

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:33:33 +0000

“More like you can enjoy the aroma of food, but not taste it — what a bummer.“
A better analogy would be that a Microsoft programmer is a cook, and is unable to look at the recipe for delicious Open Source cake.
If true–I have no idea if it is or not–it would probably be because Microsoft isn’t interested in getting trapped by the GNU license. I know that Windows XP uses FreeBSD’s TCP stack code, but since FreeBSD is released under the BSD license (a far, far less restrictive license than GNU), Microsoft can legally snatch it.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:12:50 +0000

Great line, Phil.
A bit simplistic though, if you’re referring to my day job

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:00:22 +0000

Dear Hugh,
I’d love to see a new cartoon illustrating this point:
“It’s hard to get a man to understand something, when his paycheck depends on him not understanding”

By: Bil Simser

Bil Simser — Wed, 09 May 2007 21:33:00 +0000

Brilliant! A new addition to my wall.

By: Balaji Sowmyanarayanan

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan — Wed, 09 May 2007 21:27:35 +0000

Hey,
I have heard rumors that M$ programmers are banned from viewing opensource code. They are free to use the opensource software to their hearts content — but no code viewing. More like you can enjoy the aroma of food, but not taste it — what a bummer.
Guess the reason behind it is more technical than philosophical.
Yet, does Bluemonster change the situation in anyway? Not Invented Here syndrome is so old school. Religion or not, opensource cannot be wished away.
–Balaji S.