Hi all,

Bernhard Reiter and I are currently on a very short road-trip through the United States and yesterday we got ourselves a Linux Magazine (September 2001 issue) in Madison, Wisconsin. On pages 35 to 38 there is an interview with Bruce Perens that contains some interesting statements about the OSI that we'd like to share with you.

[ begin - page 37 ]

LM: But wouldn't you say the Open Source Initiative has shifted the dialogue away from Free Software?

BP: Yeah, it did. You know, I correspond with all of the players, Eric Raymond included. Eric and I have certainly had some rough times. When we founded Open Source, my understanding was that Open Source would be a gentle introduction to Free Software and not a separate movement. I would never have participated in Open Source for the purpose of creating a schism. Especially now, it is important that we stand together. That's more important than it used to be. I harbor some disappointment that Open Source became something that sort of deprecated Richard Stallman's philosophy rather than leading people into Free Software.

Richard Stallman is not the best person to make the bridge to the complete novice. It takes awhile before you can understand him. So we needed a project like Open Source to get people working on this stuff and, then, they would appreciate their freedom. But I am disappointed that Open Source has been sort of perverted into being a separate instrument. Eric is obviously very aware of that disappointment.

LM: So are you glad you participated in the Open Source Initative or do you regret it?

BP: It is very interesting because I ran for the GNOME Board and did not get elected, though I did reasonably well in the election for someone who hadn't done much in the world of GNOME programing. One of the things people didn't like about me was that I was instrumental in creating the Eric Raymond PR Monster. I hope Eric laughs when he hears this. So, I do actually feel bad about that to some extent because I did not understand where Erc was coming from when I co-founded the Open Source Initiative with him; his heart is in the right place. He's doing what he believes is right. It just so happens that it's not what I believe to be right. But had I understood Eric a little better, I would not have co-founded the Open Source Initiative with him.

[ end - page 38 ]

Okay, it is time for us to leave Clinton, Iowa now and drive through Savanna(h). We will look out for the mailman. :-)

Regards, Georg