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#Amiga Unix?
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Mr. Oliver, You are certainly entitled to your opinions, just as Stallman is
entitled to his. However, when you suggest that Stallman is a plagiarist you
have left the realm of opinion and have approached dangerously close to what
is known as libel. I would suggest you should choose your words more
carefully, and discover the facts of the case, before you go to far.
It might turn out that part of the proceeds from a court case against you
could go to support the cause of GNU – wouldn't that be something? I can
think offhand of 6 or 7 MAJOR contributions (not including EMACS) to the
state of the art which are by Stallman. These are well documented, and known
to many well informed individuals.
The only thing I know about you is that you seem to have based your entire
philosophy of life on one fictional novel. Whatever you think of Stallmans
personal beliefs, the fact remains that he is a brilliant, original, and
creative hacker, and many of the most advanced programs around, as well as a
large number of commercial offerings owe a good deal to his *original* work
in the field.
Personally, I think ideas stand on their own merits, and if you feel you need
to prop your ideas up by personal and un-informed attacks against someone who
is not even here to defend himself – well, I think that speaks for itself. In
deference to the other frequenters of this sig, I would suggest that if you
have more to say to me on this subject, you should use Email. Of course, I
won't be reading your letters… Sincerely Mr. Ballantyne
To sum up: Anyone that *I* care to converse and deal with will come to the
same conclusions I have come to about Mr. Stallman's very public writings,
which are not open to subjective interpretation of their meanings due their
explicit advocacy of expropriation of software from its authors and the
wealth acruing therefrom to the authors.
One read through the 3/85 Dr. Dobb's issue and through the revealing
description in Levy's book will allow any rational or semi-rational person to
come to their own conclusions. That's about all I care to say about it, since
I do not believe he is worthy of a lot of attention — attacking the ideas
that lead to slavery are my main concern. (P.S.: You are highly misinformed
on the nature of "libel".)
To sum up: Anyone that *I* care to converse and deal with will come to the
same conclusions I have come to about Mr. Stallman's very public writings,
which are not open to subjective interpretation of their meanings due their
explicit advocacy of expropriation of software from its authors and the
wealth acruing therefrom to the authors.
One read through the 3/85 Dr. Dobb's issue and through the revealing
description in Levy's book will allow any rational or semi-rational person to
come to their own conclusions. That's about all I care to say about it, since
I do not believe he is worthy of a lot of attention — attacking the ideas
that lead to slavery are my main concern. (P.S.: You are highly misinformed
on the nature of "libel".)