The Battle Between Purists and Pragmatists 213
Glyn Moody has a thoughtful piece taking a long look at the never-ending battle between pragmatists and purists in free and open software. "While debates rage around whether Mono is good or bad for free software, and about 'fauxpen source' and 'Faux FLOSS Fundamentalists,' people are overlooking the fact that these are just the latest in a series of such arguments about whether the end justifies the means. There was the same discussion when KDE was launched using the Qt toolkit, which was proprietary at the time, and when GNOME was set up as a completely free alternative. But could it be that this battle between the 'purists' and the 'pragmatists' is actually good for free software — a sign that people care passionately about this stuff — and a major reason for its success?"
Ha! (Score:1, Funny)
Define "define".
Re:Purist and pragmatist (Score:5, Funny)
The purist seeks to change the world to fit him, whereas the pragmatist changes himself to fit the world.
Ergo all progress relies on the purists. :-)
While the purist is sounding off about some moral crusade for cuter kittens or something, the pragmatist will have finished what they're doing and be in the bar with a beer. The purists see this as proof that they are right. The pragmatists see this as proof that they've got a beer.
Re:Purist and pragmatist (Score:1, Funny)
Hey purist, how's Hurd coming? (This comment typed on a Linux box.)
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
Define "define".
#define define
Can we move on?
Re:Purist and pragmatist (Score:5, Funny)
The pragmatists see this as proof that they've got a beer.
But it's not free beer, now is it?
Re:False dichotomy (Score:1, Funny)
There are periodically arguments of ideological integrity vs. pragmatism in all areas. I usually react by asking "which foot do you use to walk?" or "when you climb a mountain, to you look at the path to the summit or to your feet?". Both ideology and pragmatism are required. If you use only ideology, you will not get anything practical done; if you use only pragmatism, you get something done, but it may well be in the wrong direction.
Wow, if you are being ironic you are a freaking genius and I bow before you. If, however, you take yourself seriously enough to actually craft pseudo fortune cookie crap like that and mean it, I mock you from the depths of my very soul.
Re:False dichotomy (Score:5, Funny)
I can't tell if this a purist view of pragmatism, or a pragmatic view of purism.