Comments on: Ahead of his time

By: Shaya

Shaya — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:53:42 +0000

and who can forget the fact that people seemed to think that deity had to go on a “diet”. (you’re really old school, if you remember this).

By: Ian Murdock

Ian Murdock — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:31:06 +0000

You have a good memory. Bruce Perens was the one opposed to the name “deity”. He polled several people to help make his case, and Ransom was one of them (I was too).

By: Ian Murdock

Ian Murdock — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:28:33 +0000

If you earn your living from free software, you have Ransom to thank for that in no small way. Without Ransom, the Linux market would look a whole lot different (and likely be a whole lot smaller), and you’d probably be off managing Windows NT systems in some dentist’s office somewhere because the demand for your skills simply wouldn’t be what it is today. Think about it. Oh, and before you write someone off as a “dick”, I’d suggest getting to know them. That comment was uncharacteristically bitter for Ransom. Then again, I’d probably be bitter too after seven years of being written off as a dick by people who didn’t even know me.

By: foob

foob — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:35:00 +0000

R.L. is a funny guy. ISTR he opposed apt’s project name “deity”, because he found it offensive to his belief system. His opinions might have even inspired the “christianized unix” (no daemons, no “gay” sendmail) jokes from a few years back.

By: Ari

Ari — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 21:29:09 +0000

He wasn’t exactly villified just for wanting to charge for licenses. He was villified for being a dick. “We gave the Linux community more than Stallman with his libraries. Our work helps Linux so much more than a few lines of code”
Really? How has Caldera helped Debian?