[NCLUG] On topic, but a little political

[Matt Taggart]

dobbster writes...

> The thing that blew my mind is that someone of such legendary "guru"
> stature has the time to talk to a relatively clueless person such as
> myself (I mean, I am not a clueless newbie, but my UNIX expertise is
> "moderate" at best...)

I've noticed that all email from him(and Alan Cox) is usually short, to the 
point, and not capitalized/punctuated unless necessary. I've heard he has a 
big problem with his wrists from typing due to the enormous amount of email he 
gets. I think he and Cox must both respond to *every* legitimate email they 
get.

> If you're interested, I'd be glad to send you (or anyone else) a copy of
> our email conversations...  Some of his comments (um, or lectures) are
> quite amusing.

I have a recording of a talk that he gave at one of the Linux World Expos a 
couple years ago. I have it in audio CD and in mp3. Stallman is often quoted 
out of context and dismissed as a kook, but if you take time to listen to him 
he makes a very persuasive and consistant arguement. I will bring these CDs to 
the next meeting(if I remember).

> One thing I wonder is what he has against Eric Ra***nd?  I've read at
> least one of Eric's writings ("The Cathedral and the Bazzar") but it
> hardly struck me as "right-wing".  Does anyone understand what he meant?

For better or worse, being very pro-business and a gun collector usually gets 
you labeled as right-wing.

> Have any of you actually met him?  He strikes me as a bit of an odd
> fellow.  Nevertheless, I am grateful to him for his role in
> GNU/FSF/etc...

Yes I have. He's very interesting to talk even if you don't agree with him. 
And, in my experience, he is always willing to talk about these issues and 
doesn't resort to name calling or poor arguing techniques, which is a lot more 
than I can say for some of his detractors.

-- 
Matt Taggart
taggart at fc.hp.com