Noel, this post shows that you have more integrity than Mr. DeLong, whose gleeful but uninformed comments on FOSS border on the irrational.

border?

"Irrational" is hardly something with which to criticize those who put FOSS under a microscope.

I've never had a problem with the business of FOSS, but every time I try to talk about the business of FOSS or gently remind a FOSS zealot that Red Hat and IBM are out to make money the conversation goes nowhere. Putting a microscope on FOSS is the best way to quiet down the revolutionary FOSS zealots, who would rather talk about FOSS in ways that are immeasureable so as to justify their proletariat cause.

I'd love to talk about the business of FOSS without criticizing the misleading aspects w/ which FOSS supporters try to repeal the DMCA/software patents and justify theft from IP owners.

Irrational arguments are irrational arguments. It is irrational to accuse the GPL of being overly complex without comparing it to proprietary software licenses, which are also complex and generally indecipherable to most of the people who must agree to them to use software.

And, frankly, it is irrational to label all supporters of FOSS "zealots" - not all FOSS supporters are Richard Stallman. Some just like to use Linux, Firefox, etc. and want to see them succeed. I could easily, and with as much evidence, accuse the authors of this blog of being private property "zealots," thereby implying that your opinions are based on ideology or emotion rather than logic or scholarship. But that's unproductive, so I don't.

I'm sure there are lots of non-zealot FOSS supporters out there who would love to talk with you...I just doubt many of them comment on blog posts. Blogs (both for the authors and the commenters) just seem to be magnets for flamebait...maybe bacause they are relatively anonymous. But it works both ways.

"...FOSS in ways that are immeasureable so as to justify their proletariat cause."

Noel, I think we've covered this goround before, that it is from a pro-market forces view that I appreciate the power of the GPL.

The GPL will, incidentally destroy some companies business plans, but for the greater efficiency of the overall economy.

More authentic market forces, with a few less monopolies will, incidentally, benefit the "proletariet" as well as the "middle class, but there does not seem to be anyone, other than Noel Le who is trying to equate the GPL/FOSS movement with communist political philosophy. This line is just starting to sound silly.

If we are going to conflate politics and software, here is a better example:

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint