[PROPOSAL] Open Source certification

Will Lowe harpo at UDel.Edu
Sat Apr 10 20:59:28 UTC 1999


>  > Admitting your mistakes, your bugs, your design flaws, whatever is a key
>  > element of free software development.
> You are absolutely right.  That is how hackers do things.  It's
> completely lacking in a business environment.  If we were to be seen
> as hackers, we would get the same regard that hackers have always
> gotten: zero.

	Hmm.  Hackers got some pretty big regard with Mozilla, the first
time around.  And the Halloween documents show some regard, too :). I
thought this whole thing was about 'them' (suits) coming to 'us'(1) (Free
Software), and not the other way around?  Yeah,  I understand the need to
meet in the middle,  but still ... I don't want to play in their backyard.
They want to play in mine.

	I'd say that at the recent rash of companies announcing "Open 
Source" (or whatever) projects isn't a whole lot of regard for hackers.

	It's a publicity stunt.

							Will

(1) I'd like to acknowledge, for the record, that my contributions to the
world of free software (note no caps) are tiny (a few Debian packages,
mostly).  I don't claim to speak for the hacker or free software community
at large.

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