Interview with Tim Bray
,----[ Quote ]
| LJ: What is your take on the Java/OSS debate?
|
| TB: I'm not 100% convinced that an OSS license for Java will bring that
| much engineering benefit. One of the biggest benefits of open source is
| that bugs are caught and fixed more quickly. But "Java" is defined as
| "a binary that passes the TCK", and that's worked well; the Java
| community likes it, and that's how it's going to stay. So I'm not sure
| that it's reasonable to expect the open-source "release early, release
| often" culture to come to Java. On the other hand, Java's licensing has
| been a cultural obstacle to a lot of people, especially in the Linux
| space. One result is that things like GNOME and KDE are stills
| ubstantially written in C++, blecch. So I'm optimistic that a real
| open-source license will eventually empower the developers of the
| non-Microsoft desktop.
|
| [...]
|
| LJ: All right, since this is Linux Journal, we need to ask at least have
| one pure Linux question before we close, okay? What is your favorite
| Linux distribution?
|
| TB: My favorite distro is Ubuntu, although the server/firewall box in
| my basement is basic Debian, and I'm happy with that too.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9247
In older and related news, Bray is among the famous people who ditched Apple
and opted for GNU/Linux. From his blog:
,----[ Quote ]
| Early this month, Mark Pilgrim made waves when he went shopping for a
| new Mac, but decided not to buy one, and, in When the bough breaks, wrote
| at length about switching to Ubuntu. I've been thinking about this a
| lot recently, and now John Gruber's written And Oranges, a fine excursus
| on Mark?s piece. I'm pondering the switch away myself, too, and maybe
| sharing my thoughts will be helpful. [Update: Lots of feedback on the
| state of the Ubuntu art.] [Update: More from Mark. I feel sick,
| physically nauseated, that Apple has hidden my email--the record of
| my life--away in a proprietary undocumented format. I've had this happen
| once before (the culprit was Eudora); fool me twice, shame on me. Hear
| a funny sound? That's a camel's back, breaking.]
|
| [...]
|
| Will I Switch? · Yes. For Mark?s reasons, and because I'm pretty darn
| sure that either Ubuntu or some other distro will eventually get the
| key things right.
|
| Alternatively, Apple could open-source a few of their apps so we could
| all fix the pain points, and they could start having an actual
| conversation with the world. Nothing less is acceptable.
|
| As John Gruber points out, neither Mark nor I are exactly typical.
| But you know what? I think that if the GNU/Linux/Solaris community
| can sustain its current level of energy and progress, and if Apple
| maintains its dysfunctional communications culture, there are going to
| be better choices just not for me, but for a lot of other people too.
`----
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/06/15/Switch-From-Mac
|
|
