Since you've been so generous to offer you opinion of Theo, I think it's only fair and balanced for me to offer my opinion of Eric the Flute, in a way that is c

Since you've been so generous to offer you opinion of Theo, I think it's only fair and balanced for me to offer my opinion of Eric the Flute, in a way that is consistent with Eric's own name dropping protocol. I believe that Eric the Flute was disrespectful to Linus by labeling ESR's "Many Eyes" theory "Linus's Law". I believe that Eric the Flute was disrespectful to RMS by relabeling RMS's "Free Software" movement "Open Source". I believe that Eric the Flute has made a career out of bogging down the FOSS world in internal doctrinal disputes, and that his "many eyes" argument gives people a false sense of security in open source software, and that kind of pap diverts attention and money away from supporting qualified eyeballs and assholes who do the incredibly difficult and tedious work of meticulously reviewing code and fixing bugs like Theo De Raadt does. And I believe that Eric the Flute is being a narcissistic hypocrite when he writes stuff like this recent blog posting, with numbered instructions for where, when and how to drop and not drop his name. Specifically, number two, which gives me the right to drop his name in this context: Namedropping "ESR" http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=5266 http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=5266 2. Do drop my name if by doing so you can achieve some mission objective of which I would approve. Examples that have come up: encouraging people to design in accordance with the Unix philosophy, or settling a dispute about hacker slang, or explaining why it's important for everyone's freedom for the hacker community to hang together and not get bogged down in internal doctrinal disputes. So it's important to "not get bogged down in internal doctrinal disputes", huh? My mission is to explain why it's important for people in the FOSS community not to base their careers on tearing other people down. Why can't we all just get along, huh? I'd like to hear Eric the Flute explain how his goal of "not get bogged down in internal doctrinal disputes" squares with his decades-long ongoing feud with RMS about "free software" -vs- "open source software" on which he's based career? And I'd like to ask him to please stop encouraging his followers to act as if there's some kind of war going on between Free Software and Open Source Software. For example, Eric the Flute's friend and fellow right wing global warming denying libertarian gun nut internet celebrity "Tron Guy" Jay Maynard (who fawningly replied to that blog posting "FWIW, I apply my own fame in much the same way, and follow this set of rules both for myself and for my friendship with Eric. Like him, I didn’t set out to become famous.") has taken a stand on wikipedia and his Hercules emulator project about how there is a war going on, and he ideologically opposes Free Software but supports Open Source Software, and it's insulting to him for anyone to insinuate otherwise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hercules_(emulator)#So-called_.22free_software.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hercules_(emulator)#So-ca... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jay_Maynard#Hercules_and_so-called_.22free_software.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jay_Maynard#Hercules_and_... The Hercules development community generally objects to the term "free software", and in several instances contributes to Hercules specifically as a reaction to the misuse of the term. As long as the portal and the categories use this misleading term to apply to software that is freely available and redistributable, please do not add Hercules to them, since it implies support for the "free software" side of the ongoing political war that does not, in fact, exist. -- Jay Maynard (talk) 08:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC) Please do not ascribe to me a viewpoint I do not hold. Hercules rejects the term "free software", and many of its developers - including me - contribute to the project on the explicit basis that it is not part of that world. This has been hashed out at the Talk:Hercules emulator page. Calling it "free software" here ascribes to me a view that I not only do not hold, but actively disagree with. Please don't count me as a supporter of "free software", the FSF, or Richard M. Stallman, and please don't enlist me on your side of the "free software"/open source war. I believe calling it "free software" is argument by redefinition, and fundamentally dishonest. It's also a naked attempt to glorify a major restriction of freedom for programmers by nevertheless calling it "free", in the same vein as "War is peace". The concept of freedom is far too valuable to demean it in that manner. As for "but it's free software anyway", the reverse argument, that "free software" is all open source, is just as valid - yet "free software" zealots reject it out of hand and say "don't co-opt our work!" Well, that sword cuts both ways. I am not a member of the so-called "free software" movement and never will be. Please don't insult me and misrepresent my views by calling me one. -- Jay Maynard (talk) 13:22, 16 August 2010 (UTC) I wonder where "Tron Guy" got those ideas about this "ongoing political war" about "Free" -vs- "Open Source" software, and why he's getting so bogged down in internal doctrinal disputes? http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Eric_S._Raymond http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Eric_S._Raymond Like Lubos Motl, his crankery is a counterpoint to his area of brilliance, not a negation of it. And I disagree with just about every political opinion ESR has. (And have actually argued them with his good friend Jay Maynard.) - David Gerard (talk) 20:46, 29 July 2010 (UTC) It saddens me that Jay "Tron Guy" Maynard is one of ESR's fans. Turns out the guy who made cosplay respectable for grownups is a right-wing asshole -- wonder if he's a brony? (Anyway, it seems he's given up lead maintainership of the Hercules mainframe emulator, so, um... yay?) EVDebs (talk) 23:42, 10 July 2013 (UTC) For more background on Eric the Flute: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond