Has the emperor got any clothes?

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 09:12

Opinion and Analysis

As to having anything akin to love for software, please don't make me laugh. Senor, you may love software. For me it is a tool to get a job done. If proprietary software had done the job for me, I would never have moved to using free software. Had Apple been selling their hardware and software a bit cheaper, then a poor man like me would have gone down that path some years ago. Free software filled a need for me and still does - I don't see a need to change.

But exposing the emperor when he has no clothes (please look up the wonderful fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen for that tale, Senor) has always been a goal for me - and every other person who is a professional journalist. Sometimes the barbs can get a little painful, sometimes being one of this species of nobility can be a little wearing. I am more than willing to grant that.

And now to that word jihadist. Presumably, one should look for an American definition as Senor de Icaza now resides in the land of the stars and the stripes, the land of the brave and the free. The free online dictionary defines the word as "a Muslim who is involved in a jihad." Merriam Webster provides this : "a Muslim who advocates or participates in a jihad."

The word "jihad" in Arabic means struggle, nothing else. I can speak with absolute confidence, having spent a decade in the Arab world. It is corrupted by the Western world to mean "holy war". I am not a Muslim so your characterisation is wrong. Dead wrong. Your final claim that I make no contribution to free software is also wrong. More people than I can count have had their efforts to provide FOSS to the masses documented and publicised by people like me who take the trouble to look behind the spin. That does much more for FOSS than misguided projects like Mono.