Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 10:12
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Let's refresh our collective memory. This seeker behind truth is the
same man who, when a part of Ximian, sat quietly by as the company used
used terms as "kde", "konqueror", "dcop" (the KDE "Desktop
Communications Protocol"), and kparts (the KDE component model) as
Google adwords for its own ads. When KDE developers Kurt Granroth and
Andreas Pour published
an article titled "'Business Ethics' in the Open
Source Community?" which chastised Ximian for this deceitful practice,
de Icaza's business partner Nat Friedman had sufficient chutzpah to say:
"We knew what we were doing," noting that Ximian's goal was to ensure
"as many users for Ximian GNOME as possible," within the context of
"friendly competition."
Such definitions tend to stretch the English
language even in this day and age when you can kill 1000 civilians with
a bomb and call it "collateral damage."
But pointing it out, bringing it to the surface again - man, that's the work of a tabloid hack.
I doubt that de Icaza has read anything what I've written
outside the FOSS arena - yet he has the gumption to conclude that I
have "never shown any sign of intellect beyond what would be expected
by the rage-o-sphere." That's good reasoning for you. Maybe he employs
the same powers of reasoning when he concludes that tailgating APIs
from Microsoft is a good idea.
Then de Icaza goes on to say that I have selectively quoted his
"most extensive and more nuanced response." The sum and substance of
what he has to say in defence of Mono, Moonlight and Microsoft has been
repeated
ad infinitum whenever he gets the chance. He even interrupts
radio broadcasts to spread this message. Why should one repeat his
arguments any more?
But then comes the crowning glory of Senor de Icaza's reasoning
powers. "Sam is a partisan hack, loves KDE, hates Gnome and hates
Mono." How de Icaza managed to have a peek at my desktop to see what I
use for my day to day work is beyond me.
But let me disabuse you of certain notions, Senor. First, it
may be good to absorb the fact that theorising without data is a
capital mistake. Those are not my words. If you read the works of the
late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in particular those in which the man
chronicles the doings of one Sherlock Holmes, you will find that wise saying.
For the past eight years, I've been using the Ice Window Manager
and a mix of applications for my own work. Sure, I run a couple of
applications that are part of KDE. I also run a couple of applications
from GNOME. Partisan? Not unless the word has been redefined at Novell.
Maybe de Icaza needs a good English dictionary. Senor, please
provide me your address and I will send the starving free software
developer a copy of the Oxford Dictionary, the same as the one I use.
It may help you out and prevent you from venturing down the path taken
by
Mrs Malaprop .
