Talk:Pioneers
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Urr.. is esr a pioneer? Comments? -- rack
- ESR is a really, really cool guy (had the opportunity to see him speak) but I don't think he's a pioneer. He does lots of cool stuff but no one of his projects has been especially groundbreaking (unlike RMS' GPL). Webfork
Perhaps include SourceForge or one of the other free hosts, for being a major influence in the inception, collaboration, development and distribution of open-source software? -- rack
I wonder about ESR you know. In some senses he is a pioneer, in others he is just a member of the community. But then, who is to say who a pioneer is? Linus created Linux, but technically speaking he was just copying what Andrew Tanenbaum, Kirk McKusick and the BSD guys started - not to mention RMS and the original UNIX developers (Bell Labs, Dennis Ritchie, AT&T (how do we create a wikilink to this?) etc)... Much as RMS irritates me, he is definitely THE guy who started the whole free software thing, though you have to remember AT&T had open source too... It's a bit of a puzzle. -- Amw
- Why does RMS irrate you? I think the world is far better of with people like him. He fills me with hope. - ABliss
- RMS is egotistical, arrogant, over-zealous, fanatical and close-minded. He has no concept of tact or respect. I'm sorry, but i don't care how "great" of a pioneer you are, if your personality is that abrasive then you're still a prick. -- Amw
- He acts like dick because he has a mental dissorder. RMS is partially autistic, man. He's an idiot savant. -- Webfork
Is Bill Gates a pioneer? I'd say yes, but this page seems to be mostly talking about open source pioneers. What about Steve Wozniak or Steve Jobs? -- Amw
- I'd say its really a question of who you want to celebrate. I would say Pioneers are people who traveled someplace new, broke new ground, and created something unique and benefitial to humanity. I'm sure the pioneering spirit is one that could involve loads of cash but I think celebrating those among us who better civilization through unique work are Pioneers. I know the Steves have done some cool stuff and I know that Gates has popularized technology but have they really changed the way we think about anything other than business? Do they need to in order to be considered Pioneers?
- Ideally: leave them off.
RMS created the GNU license and changed the way we think of cooperation, business, and industry. Meanwhile, Linus created something other people were already working on and continued the process to revolutionized computers. Ian Clarke created another layer to the Internet that's censorship proof. John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, said "The Net interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it." None of them did it to make loads of cash, they did it because it was a great idea.
- Marc Anderseen of Netscape is a great middle-ground example - he had some profound vision for the Web as we know it today and continues to be involved in some pretty cutting edge projects. But he, like Gates and the Steves, went into it with cash in mind.
- So I'm not sure what I'd recommend. But do I consider Bill Gates to be both a rich man and a great man? Not really. Webfork
- I'd say no, not at all. What is that you think was poineered by Gates? Monopolies have been around for ages. - ABliss
