GNOME Handbagging

November 27, 2007 8:32 pm gman GNOME

Quim: There’s critique and there’s personal attacks – it’s a very, very fine line that we all need to be aware of. Calling Jeff a “psychotic failure”, “erratic fool” or “paranoid psycho” is anything but constructive, and in all honesty, pretty laughable given Jeff’s involvement within GNOME over the years and the contributions he’s made. Jeff’s a very close personal friend, has been nothing other than inspirational and supportive to me during my career, and I respect him highly to be a good visionary for the project. Sorry Murray, but I strongly disagree with you, and I’m disappointed that todays commentary on Planet GNOME has taken away from the positivity of the election campaign and those standing to help out in the running of the GNOME Foundation (let alone the people who are watching from outside the community).

5 Responses

  1. anonymous Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

    Thank you so much for pointing this out. Actually I think that Jeff should file a law suit against Murray – very easy to win in Germany, getting him $10.000+ indemnification. I’m just surprised to see how many people don’t get that. Most surprising is that Luis Villa -who studies law- doesn’t get that.

    Second interesting thing is that Murray even dares to mention that he himself wrote a code of conduct. So he is one of “the good ones” by definition?

  2. Quim Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    I agree with you that Murray is falling into personal attacks and I would never use those type of words against anybody publically (nor I use them in private critique either, not my style).

    Still I think we have a problem with critique and self-critique, and still I think Murray and anybody else has the right to make critique in the way they think it’s best as part of the discussion in the GNOME Foundation. These were the only points I wanted to make.

    My first thought was to stay silent, this is always the easiest.

  3. Lukas Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 12:17 am

    For me as an outsider (and long time user of gnome … you guys rock. all.): I was shocked when I saw Murrays post, and my immediate thinking was: this was working for a long time in him and it had to come out at some time. He used personal attacks, yes, but whats more important: He started a real discussion. I mean, really: I only read the planet, not the lists, and there’s no flamewar going on at the moment (I had expected there’d be one), there is a discussion going with opinions. I believe that was badly needed. It looks to me like Gnome’s getting adult, actually 🙂
    If I’d were to vote, I’d vote for both just to get them work together again and sort things out.

  4. Simon Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    GNOME has been, for quite some time, the primary conduit of proprietary and patent-encumbered Microsoft technologies into the world of free software.

    The GNOME foundation is a Microsoft ally. For every Microsoft attack initative, there are willing GNOME sycophants to do their dirty work;

    Miguel to cut the code.

    Jody to advocate on Microsoft’s behalf to standards bodies.

    ..and of course, the despicably self-serving Jeff Waugh, with his sneering contempt for the users and the community, trying to convince all of us that serving Microsoft’s goals really is for the best.

    The cacophany of voices raised against GNOME include luminaries like Stallman, Cox and PJ in forums such as gnome-foundation and odf-discuss – all of whom have been treated to the same sneering contempt GNOME users are treated with by the despicable Jeff Waugh.

    Finally, someone within GNOME is reflecting what those outside the project have been clamouring for several years, attempting to save the project from those that have subverted it to Microsoft’s interests. Good work Murray and shame on you Glynn for coming in on the side of wrong.

  5. gman Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    Simon: this has *nothing* to do with Microsoft. It’s a totally separate issue. This is about one person being a dick to another, and expressing himself in a completely un-constructive manner. I doubt anyone has subverted it to Microsoft’s interests currently. Mono is not yet an official platform in GNOME, though people should of course feel free to using the technology any way they like, just like any other open source or free software project.