Roy Schestowitz of Boycott Novell interviewed by Jono Bacon on TWiT TV.
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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lozz
2 years 31 weeks 5 hours 40 min ago
Not bad, Roy
You handled a brusque and fairly hostile interview quite well. The continual interjections of an impatient, "right" are a tactic to unsettle your interviewee while he is trying to frame an answer.
I ran out of time after about 20 minutes, but he definitely belongs to the, "say no evil of M$/Novell/Miguel" camp and my opinion of Jono Bacon wasn't enhanced after viewing his interviewing techniques.
knowing-card
2 years 31 weeks 50 min 46 sec ago
Right
I don't think saying "right" was a tactic designed to make Roy unsettled. People say "right" like that to indicate agreement. Unless they are saying it with a sarcastic tone - which I didn't detect in Jono's voice.
That being said, I didn't understand his line of questions at all. It seemed like he just wanted to take interviewing Roy as an opportunity to point out how much the community doesn't like him.
I guess Jono doesn't like the fact that his project (Ubuntu) is under BN's scrutiny over it's continually increased use f Mono infested products.
And you'd think he'd be grateful for BN's warnings about mono. If Ubuntu goes down thanks to this submarine patent tactic of MS/Novell, a lot of people are gonna wish they listened to Roy.
peacemaker
2 years 31 weeks 58 min 46 sec ago
"Do you feel like you've driven it in the wrong direction?"
What was the point of this interview? I wonder what Roy was told he would be asked about. Jono Bacon really did seem to be out to harass you Roy. I mean who asks questions like this:
"Do you feel like you've driven [BoycottNovell.com] in the wrong direction?"
It's not as though you were expressing some doubt. Jono Bacon seemed to me to be pretending that the community doesn't like you because you have some outspoken critics. If you take everything negative ever said about anything and shine a spotlight on them you end up with a pretty dim picture. I'd like to see someone interview Jono in the same way about Ubuntu.
motters
2 years 30 weeks 2 hours 25 min ago
Not a good interview
I also thought that this was not a good interview, and that the interviewer seemed to have a clear bias. Towards the end the interviewer seemed to be getting excessively emotional, whereas Roy seemed fairly calm.
In this interview I would have preferred questions such as:
What is the danger to people writing software using Mono?
What's the worst that Microsoft could do? If they did their worst, could we work around it?
How much uncertainty is there surrounding the validity of software patents?
Exactly how much "rent" is being extracted from free software as part of the Novell/MS deal?
Are MS actually redistributing code written using mono? If so, could we persuade the mono project developers to use a license like GPL3 which might lessen the patent risk?
Is there any way that the community can put pressure on Microsoft to get them to disclose which patents they're referring to (dispel the FUD) ?
knowing-card
2 years 29 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago
Why don't we set up an interview between you and Roy?
Maybe FSDaily could host an interview between you and Roy. You sound like you have a good idea of the sort of questions to ask.