But incoherent ramblings filled with half-truths like Chris’s are not good Open
source advocacy. Which saddens me, because I have a soft spot for free/open source software
(FOSS), and in many ways I think it’s doing a better job than proprietary software
ever can. I use a lot of it, and have been known to fix bugs and implement
new features in various FOSS projects. In particular, I like that I can collaborate
with a bunch of programmers from wildly varying backgrounds, some of which are really really smart.

I would love to make my living developing FOSS, but very few people are smart and
lucky enough to be able to do that, and I’m not one of them. However, those that are,
are typically far more humble and openminded than what you usually see on slashdot.

But bad open source advocates are typically teenagers or in their early twenties,
they don’t speak for anyone but themselves, have no influence to speak of, and
are usually shown the holes in their argumentation, at least when they venture outside
of the group-think circles. Most of them grow smarter and humbler with age. I can
forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.

But I also have a soft spot for proprietary software. It has paid my bills for the
last eight years, and in many ways I think it’s doing a better job than FOSS ever
can. It therefore saddens me when grown men with power spread similarly bad proprietary
software advocay, like saying ”Linux
is a cancer that attaches itself [...] to everything it touches” or ”The
GPL violates the U.S. Constitution”. I have to wonder why these men, who really
should know better, so seldom are shown the holes in their argumentation. Sure,
their ramblings filled with half-truths are endlessly rebutted on slashdot and groklaw,
but it really should be the Chicaco Sun-Times reporter that publically calls
Ballmer on the FUD he’s trying to pull.