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Open Source Initiative Bans Co-Founder, Eric S. Raymond, from its Mailing Lists

posted by martyb on Tuesday March 10 2020, @11:51PM   
from the quite-the-coc-up dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Open Source Initiative bans co-founder, Eric S Raymond:

Last week, Eric S Raymond (often known as ESR, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and co-founder of the Open Source Intiative) was banned from the Open Source Intiative[sic] (the "OSI").

Specifically, Raymond was banned from the mailing lists used to organize and communicate with the OSI.

For an organization to ban their founder from communicating with the group (such as via a mailing list) is a noteworthy move.

At a time when we have seen other founders (of multiple Free and Open Source related initiatives) pushed out of the organizations they founded (such as with Richard Stallman being compelled to resign from the Free Software Foundation, or the attempts to remove Linus Torvalds from the Linux Kernel – both of which happened within the last year) it seems worth taking a deeper look at what, specifically, is happening with the Open Source Initiative.

I don't wish to tell any of you what you should think about this significant move. As such I will simply provide as much of the relevant information as I can, show the timeline of events, and reach out to all involved parties for their points of view and comments.

The author provides links to — and quotations from — entries on the mailing list supporting this. There is also a conversation the author had with ESR. The full responses he received to his queries are posted, as well.

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Original Submission

• Re:FFS (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @05:36AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @05:36AM (#969509)

  That's not a legally valid contract. I can't tell whether the woman who won the $10,000 from Microsoft was indeed victim of a similar scheme, but this isn't software being operated for a risky purpose for which it wasn't intended. And for someone who doesn't even know what Windows 10 is, much less how to revert it to an older version, how are they going to know what of their other critical software is going to break when they, whether intentionally or not, upgrade to Windows 10?

  They aren't, that's the point.

  Microsoft hates you actually having control of any computer, even those you technically own. Big Tech does not want you to have computers, to control computers, or to have any way to stop them from deciding what you may and may not do with any computer you come into contact with, including accessing information, making content, or running software that they disapprove of.

  Big Tech wants to own your data, your use of a computer, your computer period, and through these, you. Never, ever forget that.

  Parent

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