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September 4, 2008

DisingeGNUity ()

by fluffy at 12:04 PM
Okay, I really like how Stephen Fry endorses GNU, but there's a bit amiss with that video:
  • The only computer visible is a MacBook Air, which is probably running OSX (although he never displays it running anything at all). Stephen never says he actually uses GNU, he just prattles on about how wonderful it is, but seemingly (per his comments regarding OSX's EULA) doesn't realize that, at an OS level, OSX is essentially GNU with a non-GNU UI running on top of it.
  • The music at the end is built entirely out of commercial, royalty-free, but non-redistributable piano loops which are part of GarageBand (which is commercial software), and somehow the credits list it as being some song that was ostensibly composed by someone (apparently stringing loops together in more or less exactly the order they are provided is composition now?) but of course this is a long-running pet peeve of mine.
  • While it's nice that they used an Ogg video, they use a Java-bytecode-based player to play it, so it's not like it's end-to-end Free there either.
Also, his plumbing metaphor falls somewhat flat. Neither Microsoft nor Apple actively prevent people from exploring their OS or sharing what they've found to others, and plumbers and plumbing enthusiasts can't simply copy pipe fittings and fixtures and the like without paying for materials which are likely to be prefabricated (unless someone has their own smelting/molding/etc. equipment).

Comments

#11267 09/04/2008 02:04 pm
Er...isn't OSX all BSD based? (And therefore not GNU code or license?)
#11268 09/04/2008 02:21 pm
Oh, right. But it's still Free, at least in the way that GNU cares about. (Also the compiler is GNU.)
#11269 09/04/2008 02:36 pm
Kinda. GNU hates the BSD stuff because it lets big companies (like Apple) use their stuff without releasing the changes.
#11270 09/04/2008 02:39 pm
Yeah, but Apple does release the changes anyway. Also a lot of the userspace is GNU these days. I think it's mostly just the kernel and the kernel-specific userspace which comes from BSD (or at least the parts which aren't Mach, but the line between Mach and BSD is pretty blurry in Darwin anyway).

Anyway that's still just paving over the fact that I had a massive brainfart when I wrote that particular point.