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Richard Stalin *COUGH* I mean Stallman is absolutely nuts. But he's right about this. That Torvalds says 'OSS' and not 'FS' does show where he's coming from.

Torvalds has long shown that he's a pragmatic type of guy, his main goal is good software that works. His use of the term 'OSS' proves it.

Stalin just wants software to be free for some religious edict of his; free for "freedom's" sake.(I'm sure all my fellow freepers can understand why I put freedom in quotes here)

Torvalds continues to prove that he doesn't look through the religious looking glass. He's looking through the superior product looking glass.

Torvalds has long shown that he's a pragmatic type of guy, his main goal is good software that works. His use of the term 'OSS' proves it.

Its more than just that. Thorvald's believes in freedom for users *and* developers. E.G. if you develop hardware you don't have to open it up just because you put oss software on it. If you deny developers freedom eventually you will choke out users from having any quality software.

Stallmans madness works in a developers only community with small tools but it does not work when your trying to put out a platform for users and businesses like Linux. Hey stallman, there is a reason HURD cant get off the ground.

BSD is looking better and better.

Stallman’s version of “freedom” is that everyone “shares”, whether they like it or not.

If Torvalds loses this fight, watch BSD adoption shoot through the roof.

that's probably why he doesn't appreciate GPL version 3.

This isn't exactly a big secret. Linus chose GPL v2 because it suited his goal, tit-for-tat, perfectly - "You get my source, I want any changes you make to it in return." See the lkml for an exact quote. Works for me even if it doesn't exactly match my own goals.

My question in response is, why doesn't Stallman trust his own license? Hmm?

I am not a communist. I use the barter system to pay for my software. I download the open source, build and install it and if it doesn't work right, I send patches back to the maintainers or work with them to get it fixed.

I am also not a dictator and my record speaks for itself (see the history of XEmacs between 1996 and 2000 when I did start out as a total dictator). I am also not entirely opposed to proprietary software - I took the responsibility of making sure that Omron's Wnn6 worked with XEmacs (a brilliant product that I wish they sold in north america).

Lastly, I have no love of Richard Stallman, but misspelling his last name does you no favors and makes you look silly like the Hittlary's and M$'s etc, etc.