When egomaniacs strike...

Story: Novell could be banned from selling LinuxTotal Replies: 8
Author Content
dinotrac

Feb 03, 2007
6:46 AM EDT
"The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. "

Hmmmm...

No news in the article, but that line really raises a red flag with me.

"The community of people", eh?

That sure sounds like an egotistical windbag to me.

The FSF may want to do anything. Moglen may want to do anything. RMS may want to do anything. Lots of others may want to do anything. But, last I looked, "the community of people" includes a whole bunch of folks who aren't anxious to do anything they can to interfere with the deal.

Unless, of course, those who disagree aren't welcome to be part of the community.

In which case, I think the community should swith the Hurd, as you really can't trust any software produced by folks who aren't worthy to be part of the "community of people".
cr

Feb 03, 2007
8:31 AM EDT
As pointed out on slashdot, Moglen was taken somewhat out of context here.

I share your automatic distrust with anyone purporting to speak for 'the people', though (cue Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" here). Stone Soup v. Redmond Koolaid is revolutionary enough without raising New-Left Inferi.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/03/0921201&thresho...
jsusanka

Feb 03, 2007
9:25 AM EDT
"That sure sounds like an egotistical windbag to me."

Doesn't to me - but who do sound like egotistical windbags are the guys who made this deal - ballmer, ron H., bill g -

I am sick of the country supporting businesses like microsoft just because they have board of directors.

the country is headed for deep deep deep dudo when we let companies run roughshod over the common folk just because we aren't greedy and we don't have a bank of lawyers/lobbyists to call on. i.e microsoft, apple, riaa, mpaa.

If they came and asked me if they should take action today I would say go for it.

I wish someone would sue ballmer for slander for making those comments after the deal. just because they made a deal with novell does not make what he said true.

novell had no right to make deal without at least asking their employees or the community. that would of been the right thing to do but they chose greed instead.

so I don't think we should be calling eblen an egomaniac when there are plenty of them running these companies that are trying to exploit the open source community all in the name of pleasing their board of directors.

dinotrac

Feb 03, 2007
10:22 AM EDT
>As pointed out on slashdot, Moglen was taken somewhat out of context here.

No time to check the context -- but am happy if it changes the meaning enough to matter.
tuxchick

Feb 03, 2007
3:20 PM EDT
This is one weird-sounding article. "The community of people" are not marching in lockstep, and certainly not with torches and pitchforks to storm the Novell stronghold. If Moglen really said that, he's a nut. There's nothing in this article that makes sense, or explains itself.
tuxchick

Feb 03, 2007
3:27 PM EDT
auuggh, SJV tries to get to the truth, but either I'm dim or it's still not making sense: http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6837365670.html

""What he actually asked me," said Moglen in an email interview, "was 'Is it true that some members of the community want GPLv3 to keep Novell from distributing future versions of GPL'd software?' I said, 'Yes, the Free Software Foundation is opposed to the deal, and is thinking about what to do; there will be a new draft soon [of the GPLv3]" (GNU General Public License Version 3).

Therefore, "The actual quote he prints is entirely accurate, but his lede destroys the context and is making unnecessary waves.""

So then it wasn't really a quote, but a paraphrase? I'm no lawyer, but I think I know the difference between a quotation and paraphrase, and "The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it" is not what Moglen said. So how can it be a quote?

Maybe they're all mad, and we're trying to make sense out of nonsense.

Ow head hurts.
dinotrac

Feb 03, 2007
3:44 PM EDT
Therefore, "The actual quote he prints is entirely accurate, but his lede destroys the context and is making unnecessary waves.""

That makes it sound like he really said it, but that it meant something different in the context in which it was said.

Gots to tell ya, tc, I'm hard pressed to imagine the context in which that quote doesn't make Moglen look bad.



tuxchick

Feb 03, 2007
4:00 PM EDT
This is the lede, which is just a dumb made-up word that means lead:

"BOSTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The Free Software Foundation is reviewing Novell Inc.'s (NOVL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) right to sell new versions of Linux operating system software after the open-source community criticized Novell for teaming up with Microsoft Corp."

Do you see a problem with it? It seems accurate to me. Then the second paragraph is supposedly a quotation: ""The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. They have every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a significant patent aggression by Microsoft," Eben Moglen, the Foundation's general counsel, said on Friday."

Then Moglen says to SJV ""The actual quote he prints is entirely accurate, but his lede destroys the context and is making unnecessary waves."" Then he says what he really said, which is not the same as what Reuters quoted. So no matter how I read it, Moglen sounds like he's tripping on something groovy.

dinotrac

Feb 03, 2007
7:08 PM EDT
>Moglen sounds like he's tripping on something groovy.

Agreed. I don't see how the actual quote can be entirely accurate if he said something else altogether.

But then, I rarely do an drug stronger than coffee.

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