Carmony Says Raymond Mail Not Tied to Linspire

LXer Feature: 24-Feb-2007 When Eric Raymond sent off an e-mail complaining about the Fedora project and distribution, some suspected his action was motivated by his conflicting values, with respect to including non-free multimedia codecs in Fedora Core, and that there might be some connection to his work with Linspire. Linspire's CEO Kevin Carmony posted a comment on LXer's forum to clarify the unilateral nature of Raymond's mail.

When Eric Raymond sent off an e-mail complaining about the Fedora project and distribution, some suspected his action was motivated by his conflicting values, with respect to including non-free multimedia codecs in Fedora Core, and that there might be some connection to his work with Linspire. Linspire's CEO Kevin Carmony posted a comment on LXer's forum to clarify the unilateral nature of Raymond's mail.

Carmony pointed out the fact that, had Raymond really been trying to benefit Linspire, he would have endorsed Freespire or Linspire, not Ubuntu, despite the partnership with Ubuntu. Carmony also pointed out that Linspire has not hired Raymond, but that Raymond is serving as a volunteer. For his part, Carmony stated he was unaware of Raymond's action until it hit the newswires.

Carmony also stated that Linspire certainly would not have wanted Raymond to stir up animosity amond the Fedora developers, with whom he has been trying to build a positive relationship. Carmony said that Linspire believes developers from various GNU/Linux distributions need to work together more, not less. Carmony recognizes that Raymond's e-mail could create unnecessary tension between distribution developers at a time when he is trying to work closely with those same developers to resolve challenges facing the Linux desktop.

In a story posted yesterday, Lxer noted the responses of several Fedora project developers. Raymond's dissatisfaction seems to have been focused primarily on the lack of non-free multimedia codecs in Fedora, since the other problems he cited were aptly answered by the developers. Raymond's e-mail reflects someone who is seemingly intent on burning bridges, rather than keeping them intact.