"What roles do Richard Stallman and the Free Software
Foundation (FSF) really play these days and what roles will they
play in the future? All is not well with Open Source and its older
brother, Free Software. Some Open Source companies, like VA Linux,
are heading to proprietary software development, and Microsoft's
top brass has been throwing the old trinity of fear, uncertainty
and doubt at the GPL.
Caldera Systems is moving away from the FSF vision as fast as
its feet can carry it, and in mid-August, Ulrich Drepper of Red
Hat, a leading Free Software developer and long time critic of the
FSF, denounced Richard M. Stallman, the FSF's president, in the
glibc 2.2.4 release notes. Never before has the FSF faced so many
varied challenges.
...Eric Raymond, the Open Source evangelist, isn't that
optimistic about FSF's future, saying, 'Barring extraordinary
leadership and a major change of direction (which I don't rule out;
it never pays to underestimate RMS's intelligence) I think the FSF
looks likely to self-destruct before long.'"
