[MacPerl] conference/freeware

[pudge@pobox.com (Chris Nandor)]

Despite not being able to throw Matthias into the pool, the conference was
very good (though not without room for improvement ... I won't recount
Darryl's post, except to say I agree).

But I would like to expand on his comments about freeware.  First, I point
you to Eric S. Raymond's web site, and his paper that was presented (in
part) at the conference:

        http://www.ccil.org/~esr/
        http://www.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral.html

After watching Linus Torvalds et al write Linux, he attempted an experiment
of his own in writing a program called fetchmail.  To make a long story
short (you can read the paper), he came to some very interesting
conclusions -- some you may not be aware of if you are only peripherally
involved with Perl -- about developing freeware and hacker culture.

I urge you all to read the paper and comment on it (will that be considered
on topic?  I think so).  If you are on this list, then MacPerl is important
to you in some way, and therefore these issues are important as well.

But the bottom line of this post is that in most of Western culture, we
value people by the value of their possessions.  But in some cultures,
including what has come to be called "hacker culture," people are valued by
the value of what they give away.

People like Larry Wall and Matthias Neeracher are among the most valued
people in our culture.  Thanks, guys.

--
Chris Nandor             pudge@pobox.com             http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey=('B76E72AD',[1024,'0824 090B CE73 CA10  1FF7 7F13 8180 B6B6'])



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