"D. J. Bernstein" wrote:
...
> Hypocrite.
...
You have repeatedly, on your dns@ list, advised people to just
download the source from your sites and install it by your directions
(which ARE rather straight forward and trivial), not use ports, RPMs,
etc. NOW you gripe about the OpenBSD team FOLLOWING your wishes and
removing what you would probably have termed an "unauthorized port".
This is most curious.
You have repeatedly stated your belief in the nonsense of license
agreements, and some indirect talks with a friend of mine who is a
professor (and lawyer) of intelectual property law indicates you are
probably correct (however, determining for "sure" will probably take a
lot of lawyers, a lot of money, and a Supreme Court decision).
HOWEVER, a license (sometimes) gives a clear statement of goals and
desires of the author/publisher, this is very useful, even if not
legally binding. Can the GPL be enforced? Who knows? (I don't place
bets when lawyers are involved.) But it states what the AUTHOR
wishes, and at least some people view this as a good thing to have and
respect. The fact that what you have said about your distribution
policies is contrary to the desires of the OpenBSD team reflects
nothing bad on either your nor them.
One thing I think many people are forgetting is OpenBSD is not a
democracy. If the developers wish to exclude software from the
'ports' tree because they don't agree with (or are unclear on) some
bit of the distribution philosophy, it is well within their rights to
do so. If they wish to exclude software because the author slings
childish names, that's their right, too. If they wish to exclude
software because it does funny things to the otherwise internally
(more-or-less) consistant file system layout, they can. IF they just
wish to exclude it just because it is written by a certain individual,
AGAIN, that is their right. It isn't for you to decide if your
software goes into the OpenBSD ports package. It isn't for you to
decide if Netscape does or does not fit the philosophy (that's between
Netscape and OpenBSD).
Anyone who disagrees with this is free to start their own BSD project,
or even their own "OpenBSD ports" project. This is one of the nice
things (in my eyes -- and I respect that others may reasonably
disagree) about the BSD license.
The decision has been made by the people who get to make that
decision. It is a direct result of your actions, it was not
abitrary. Take responsibility for your actions, don't blame others
for the the consequences of them.
Dan, I have great respect for your programs and your skill as a
programmer and as an application engineer. DJBDNS is a fantastic
product -- elegant in its simplicity, reliable, effective. I've been
an active advocate of it up to this point. I'm not going to say
"Well, you are unpleasant, therefore I'm going to switch to BIND" --
that's idiotic logic and we all know it. However, it is unfortunate
that the attitude you are expressing is so distructive to your own
causes. A reasonable reaction would be to say "hey, I understand we
have a difference in goals" -- there is no reason to take it as a
personal attack.
I'd love to have a Dodge Viper, however the dealer isn't willing to
give me one for a price I'm able/willing to pay, and I'm not ready to
hand them the cash they want for one -- we don't agree on the terms of
the license or distribution or whatever you want to call it. I'm not
evil, the dealer isn't evil, we just have an irreconcilable
difference, and I don't think either of us think poorly of the other
because of it. Now, if they start trying to grab my money, or I start
trying to grab their car, well, then we have a problem, but certainly
not now.
The OpenBSD team did not remove your software from ports with any
visable malice, and some off-list discussions with at least one
important person indicates to me there was NO malice towards you in
the decision, just a desire to respect your written wishes and goals
AND the goals of the OpenBSD project, and not ask for compromises on
the part of either party.
I don't think you are going to loose ANY potential software users here
because of being removed from OpenBSD's ports tree, and you may avoid
loosing some. I can tell you if I just saw 'djbdns' in ports and
installed it and found stuff splattered all over my root directory,
I'd be very, very ticked off. The root directory is sacred to me,
under all the OSs I work with -- I don't appreciate ANY application
thinking they are so important as to think they have the right to hang
anything off the root without my permission. Heck, as it was, I was
pretty miffed when I found /package unexpectedly (just THOUGHT I
didn't have to go back to the install guide because I'd done it a few
times before. 8-)
On the other hand, I fear you may well be loosing some potential users
based on the attitude shown here. There is just no reason for it.
Nick.
--
http://www.holland-consulting.net/
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