| Your criticism is the same one that has been
| made against the GPL countless times. History has
| proven it wrong: Linux is a huge success, thanks
| to the GPL.
I'm curious how "my criticism" is proven wrong by Linux. While Linux does prove that the GPL can work, it is not proof that a hard-line approach to the GPL is useful (especially when it comes to advocacy). Have you ever switched to veganism because of the animal rights activist shouting, "Shame! Shame on you!" on a street corner? "Getting the message out there," isn't very useful if everyone is just ignoring you. At that point, you're just tilting at windmills, and putting in useless effort.
Even your example, Linux, has a leader that is more pragmatic about software licenses than some FOSS hard-liner.
| I do think a lot of these toy projects are motivated by a
| sense of guilt.You go in to work and spend all day working
| against free software, but you can tell yourself you are on
| the right side and 'contributing' if you share that script
| that downloads cat pictures.
You're missing the point here:
1) Many people working for companies that don't open source their product contribute significantly to open source projects. E.g.:
- GvR worked for Google which is 'closed source' but I don't think that anyone considers Python a 'toy project on Github.'
- Kenneth Reitz created the awesome Python Requests library and works at Heroku, which doesn't release it's code as open source.
2) Not everyone can create some significant piece of open source software, even if they would like to. What is your dividing line between 'toy project' and 'serious project?'
3) Statements like these don't win people over. You're attacking people and making giant assumptions about their motivations. It pushes you so close to the troll territory that it becomes hard to distinguish if you are a troll parodying a FOSS hard-liner, or an actual FOSS hard-liner.
Even your example, Linux, has a leader that is more pragmatic about software licenses than some FOSS hard-liner.
You're missing the point here:1) Many people working for companies that don't open source their product contribute significantly to open source projects. E.g.:
- GvR worked for Google which is 'closed source' but I don't think that anyone considers Python a 'toy project on Github.'
- Kenneth Reitz created the awesome Python Requests library and works at Heroku, which doesn't release it's code as open source.
2) Not everyone can create some significant piece of open source software, even if they would like to. What is your dividing line between 'toy project' and 'serious project?'
3) Statements like these don't win people over. You're attacking people and making giant assumptions about their motivations. It pushes you so close to the troll territory that it becomes hard to distinguish if you are a troll parodying a FOSS hard-liner, or an actual FOSS hard-liner.