> But to my surprise, Shaw not only isn't proprietary about the brand, it looks like he is going out of his way to help other people appropriate it
I'm not sure why you were surprised, as far as I've seen Zed has generally gone out of his way to be a helpful guy. He's a bit raw and he doesn't like assholes, but he really doesn't deserve the bad rap he got in some circles. Most of it really comes from the aforementioned assholes, who happen to be more PR-savvy than him.
Uh, yeah they're not more PR savvy than I am. The vast majority of people that know about me think more like you do, and only a few mostly Rubyists think of me as some kind of boogeyman, which I also tend to cultivate since it's damn funny.
FWIW, I certainly didn't intend any disrespect (sorry that the person above jumped to that conclusion). I meant it more in the sense of a happy surprise, given that you had already freely distributed the content, also making the brand itself available was really going above and beyond.
Off topic, but almost done with Learn C the Hard Way. Great book! I was a little confused at first by pointer syntax, though. After reading K&R's C book it cleared things up for me, and then I found LCTHW great for learning more modern C practices. Thanks!
It's because earlier, unless I misremembered, someone used the name to create a work that wasn't up to Zed's standards and he told them to cut it out. He can be abrasive but he's a net win for free software. Most people angry with him are angry for immature reasons IMO.
I'm not sure why you were surprised, as far as I've seen Zed has generally gone out of his way to be a helpful guy. He's a bit raw and he doesn't like assholes, but he really doesn't deserve the bad rap he got in some circles. Most of it really comes from the aforementioned assholes, who happen to be more PR-savvy than him.