FSF = Pots Calling Kettles Black

The FSF’s environmental press release:
The statement highlights the disposable-computer mentality embodied in the excessive hardware requirements of Microsoft Windows Vista. Often new hardware is necessary to support new software features, but the coalition says in this case, Vista’s requirements are to enable the operating system to more effectively restrict the user at the request of [...]

DragonflyBSD’s Matthew Dillon on GPL

This is wonderful:

JA: How important to you is it that your code is released under the BSD license?
Matthew Dillon: Unbelievably important. I have never subscribed to the almost religious fervor surrounding the GPL, in particular I do not like the idea of trying to impose the concept of freedom on people by attaching strings. The [...]

My GPLv3 Boycott List

It’s nice that someone is keeping track of projects that are changing licenses to the more restrictive GPLv3. This will make it easier for users to avoid installing software that’s less free than previous versions were.
Here’s the list of projects (at least their GPLv3 versions) I’m boycotting.

GNU and FSF: Love-Hate

I’ve caught some flack for extolling the virtues and utility of GNU software while expressing my contempt for the Free Software Foundation (which oversees GNU) and its licensing.
So let me clarify a couple things. First, I have nothing at all against GNU software. It’s fantastic. I’ve no complaints about its operation. The list of GNU [...]

TiVoization: Solving a Problem That Doesn’t Exist

One word that Richard Stallman should’ve been too smart to coin is “TiVoization.” This “TiVoization” is one of the factors that led to the new GPLv3. But what did TiVo do to warrant such defamation?
Nothing.
TiVo devices run on Linux. TiVo, in compliance with GPLv2 (under which Linux is licensed), makes available all source code including [...]

Software, Not Ideology

I’m still pissed off about the FSF’s adoption of GPLv3.  The changes between GPLv2 and GPLv3 have more to do with ideology than software and freedom.
Jem Matzan comments that GPLv3 marks GNU’s decline and that people “will look back on this and say that June 29, 2007 was the day when the Free Software Foundation [...]

No to GPLv3

I wrote a couple months ago about why I was reluctant to support GPLv3. Now that the final draft is out, I’m more firmly against it.
OBJECTION 1: The “anti-Tivoization” clauses deal with hardware issues, not software issues. Tivo has released back code changes per the requirements of GPLv2. They haven’t done anything to violate the [...]