Recently, Slashdot reported that Free Software Foundation (FSF) leader Richard Stallman criticized Debian’s decision to include Mono in its future releases of its Linux distribution. Mono is an interpreter for Microsoft’s .NET platform that allows certain prorams coded for the Windows .NET platform to be executed inside of Linux natively. Arguing that this maneuver further indebts the development of GNU Linux to Microsoft, Stallman vehemently arued that it was a mistake and will have dire consequences for the continued development of Linux, open source, and free software as a whole.

I first met Mr. Stallman at a talk at my school three years ago. A brilliant, unshaven, and idealistic computer scientist from MIT, Stallman drew crowds of CS students and EE students like a rock star. Stallman has a great way of polarizing a crowd; even as he was... ... read more >>> a2d2.wordpress.com