RE: RE: (Ozymandias: *sigh*) RE: Billy defies Logic (again!)

[dchetlin]

While I'm fully in agreement with the link you posted, I have a comment on this statement:

Do you believe you're mooching off perl developers?

This is a dangerous and wrong attitude to take about people who use Perl and do not necessarily agree with or go along with free software/open source software. In fact, it's completely against the philosophy of Perl.

Yes, Perl is free software (er, mostly -- cue tilly about the shakiness of the AL), but that does not mean that to use Perl one must believe in free software. That's the whole point of the dual licensing scheme. There is more than one way to do it. You can take Perl, use it in a commercial app, and make money from it. Many have. You can run Perl on proprietary systems -- heck, back when it was first developed, you pretty much had to run it on proprietary systems. Nowhere does it say that one must agree with the philosophy of the Perl developers to use the language.

Do not fall into the trap of preaching about what you feel is the right thing to do -- with Perl, with free software, or with anything. In other words, Be an Advocate, not an Asshole.

Please don't take this as a personal chastisement; I write it here for the benefit of others to see and think about. Please do, however, keep in mind the danger of assuming that only one type of person uses Perl. For the most part, we're all better off the more anyone uses Perl, from Richard to Larry to Tim to Bill. No one can make the decision on who may use Perl and what Perl users must think. Not those with their names in the Changes file, not the Pumpkings, not even Larry. Not even Tom, but try telling him that :-)

Hope this didn't come across sounding too harsh.

-dlc