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   Brodie Robertson (brodieonlinux@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 22:44:45 JST Brodie Robertson

   If you've ever wondered why quote mining is dangerous here's a good example.

   In 2001 Steve Ballmer said "Linux is a cancer" this has been shared around, was reported on at the time and people still think of it today when thinking of Steve Ballmer

   But the actual quote is "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches"

   In the first quote he's saying Linux is bad, but in the full quote he's actually saying Linux is using a viral licence which nobody would disagree with. He's still wrong in the phrasing but it has a completely different meaning

   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 22:44:43 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @BrodieOnLinux Yes, Ballmer didn't hesitate to use proprietary tricks in public announcements.
     
     If Ballmer mentioned the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2), then there would be a chance of many people learning that GNU exists and then the game over sequence would start - so Ballmer referred to the GPLv2 as "Linux".
     
     "intellectual property" is yet another proprietary trick: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
     
     
     The GPLv2 and other copyleft licenses are not viral, as they don't "infect" unrelated files on the filesystem.
     
     The GPLv2 is like a spider plant - if you choose to take a piece, it will grow.
   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 23:19:08 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @BrodieOnLinux >commonly used descriptor
     I should repeat an error because it's popular?
     Many such cases: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.en.html#somanyright
     
     https://archive.org/stream/The_Basement_Interviews/Richard_Stallman_Interview_djvu.txt:
     13 As Stallman commented to me in 2003 after reading an I had written "To compare anything
     to a virus is extremely unfriendly. As regards the GPL, it is also inaccurate. The GPL's domain does
     not spread by proximity or contact, only by deliberate inclusion of GPL -covered code
     
     in your program. It spreads like a spider plant, not like a virus. People who hate the GPL have the right
     to say that it "contaminates" othei software: that's misleading, but they have freedom of speech.
     However, if you don't hate the GPL, would you please not use smear words like "viral" and
     "contaminate" to describe it?"
     
     
     To be honest, it is correct that "Linux is a cancer" (unless you use GNU Linux-libre), as it contains cancer in the form of proprietary software that the main developers refuse to remove.
   • Embed this notice
     Brodie Robertson (brodieonlinux@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 23:19:10 JST Brodie Robertson

     in reply to

     • 翠星石

     @Suiseiseki We can argue about the term viral and whether it's accurate or not but this is a commonly used descriptor. It's fair to say that he structured the statement in a way to hide what GPLv2 actually is, and that's something that should be focused on. What I don't like is misquoting on purpose, all it does is diminish the argument when people work out the actual quote

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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 23:36:03 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @BrodieOnLinux >Do you install microcode updates onto your system?
     I don't - at the moment I'm on a Librebooted-libre KGPE-D16 with 2 Opetron 62XX CPU's, which I haven't loaded any proprietary malware onto.
     
     It seems that the microcode signing scheme of this CPU line may be flawed - which is a good thing, as such would allow for free microcode updates (although those don't seem to be actually necessary, as AMD seemed to have previously made sure server CPU's worked out of the box).
   • Embed this notice
     Brodie Robertson (brodieonlinux@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Monday, 29-May-2023 23:36:04 JST Brodie Robertson

     in reply to

     • 翠星石

     @Suiseiseki He's wrong about it Linux not being the correct term for Linux, but that's a whole seperate argument that's already been fought and won decades ago.

     Do you install microcode updates onto your system?

   • Embed this notice
     Brodie Robertson (brodieonlinux@linuxrocks.online)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 20:55:13 JST Brodie Robertson

     in reply to

     • 翠星石

     @Suiseiseki What's the difference between the microcode embeded into your CPU and installing microcode onto your system. Why is that microcode fine but updating it isn't?