Accusations, accusations, always accusations

[Pete Schaeffer]

On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, Alejandro Forero Cuervo wrote:

>     All of the guts of the OS are contrary to the thing that the FSF
>     has been working toward.
> 
> When you go into the shell and you type `ls', you are using GNU utilities
> to do the job. 

[snip]

Sigh.  I know.  IknowIknowIknow.  What, you think this is news?
What I'd like to hear is some sane rationale for Richard "I just
want everybody to be free" Stallman's petty insistence that he be
allowed to name someone else's product.  How free is that?  

Of course he'll point out that, yes, we can call things whatever
we want; that we can be wayward children and call Linux Linux if
we're so perverse; that he's only trying to show us the Light of
Truth and the error of our ways; that until we turn, he will
dilligently keep correcting us; ; that he's bound to fight our
heterodoxy and convert us infidels; but that he still, always,
forever wants us to stay free.  Nice of him.  

Richard is an ace, prime, bone-deep fundamentalist.  This is a
comment not on his character, but his actions (fundamentalism is
about what you do, not what you believe).  It's all about
doctrine with him, not ideas; about adherence rather than
understanding; about quieting, rather than convincing, his
correspondent.  If it's good to free source, it's wrong to limit
discourse; but Richard doesn't discuss, he asserts.  He doesn't
respond, he restates.  There's no conversation with him.  

So watch this: