Coffs Free and Open Technology Network

Yesterday on Identica, I declared that I was:

"De-Bacon-ising. Unsubscribing from @jonobacon, #FLOSSWeekly & #ShotOfJaq. Can't bear the anti-FSF anti-RMS attitude any longer."

I soon realised this sounded too unfairly personal, so I think I'd better elaborate.

I've considered myself a part of the free software movement from the "Woah!" moment when I first read the preamble of the GPL over ten years ago. This was around the time of the formation of the open source movement, and for a while I was as confused as many people still are about the relationship between free software and open source, believing the latter term to be as Bruce Perens intended a synonym of the former.

I regularly bought "Linux" magazines, and because I'm not too bright, it took me a while to work out why they never used the term "free software", and why they devoted a tremendous amount of space to reviewing software I'd never heard of, with the ridiculous sort of names that I thought I'd left behind in the Windows world ("Power EZ-Biz Lite Professional Edition 6.3").

Eventually I realised that the publishers and writers of these magazines (for the most part) fundamentally disagreed with the philosophy of the free software movement, and I stopped buying the magazines. This was not a morally outraged boycott on my part, simply a recognition that people who held the beliefs I do about software freedom are not the intended audience of these magazines, and it made no more sense for me to regularly read them than it would to subscribe to Flat-Earthers' Monthly.

For much the same reason I've finally decided to give up on most podcasts to do with "Linux" or "Free, Libre, and Open Source software" and other such "inclusive" terms. There was no final "that's it, I'm so offended I'll never listen again" moment, I just realised I had episodes of FLOSS Weekly and Shot of Jaq backing up for week after week, and no particular enthusiasm for listening to them. Like the magazines, they're (for the most part) just not produced by people who are interested in the things that interest me for the reasons they interest me.

That's not to say I've never been irritated, angered, or offended by these podcasts. Repeated ridicule of Richard Stallman's personal eccentricities rapidly becomes decidedly unfunny. Nor am I terribly pleased when I find my beliefs summarily dismissed as "zeolatry" or "extremism". It's four freedoms, people! Only four - count 'em! It's hardly Scientology!

I'm sure Jono Bacon is far from the worst offender on these counts and - credit where it's due - while there are many, many tech podcasts where I've been unable to get through a single episode, there are few podcasts on any subject that I've enjoyed as much as the late lamented LugRadio.

I do not expect that Jono or anybody else should self-censor in order to avoid upsetting my delicate sensibilities. If there's one thing that I think should change, it's that we would do well to stop pretending that the free software community and the open source community are the same community. We are not one big happy family blighted by the occasional irrational extremist like crazy old Uncle Richard; we are two communities with fundamentally irreconcilable views, but we get on well enough and respect each other enough to be able to work on software projects together.

Think of the benefits: open source people will no longer have to be upset about anything RMS says or does if they just accept, as he repeatedly insists, that he's not claiming to speak for them. Lefty Schlesinger and Miguel De Icaza could go for days on end without a single fit of apoplexy. With Bruce Perens safely back in the free software community he could go on jolly nature rambles with Eric Raymond, confident that Raymond's gun would not be used to take down anything less furry than himself.

Yes, it's a bright, shining, happy future that's within our grasp. "Open Source Weekly" has quite a ring to it. Although - no offense - I won't be listening.