Feb 23
LugRadio hostile to Miguel?
There’s been some discussion, on various blogs and news sites, suggesting that we - the LugRadio guys - were hostile during our interview with Miguel de Icaza.
This has concerned me. Were we hostile? If so, did we appear to be hostile to Miguel, and not just some of the concerns surrounding Mono? During the recording, and after having listened to it several times, I know that we weren’t hostile to Miguel the man. It could be argued, though, that we were somewhat combative, at times, with regard to important reservations that people have about Mono.
I feel no regret that our interview with Miguel was a little boistrous and maybe asked questions that made him feel uncomfortable. It’s true, the interview wasn’t perfect but we asked him questions that we hear open source advocates ask all the time. Mono’s genesis in a Microsoft technology - ECMA approved or not - is a worry to many people. And why shouldn’t it be? Microsoft has employed some, shall we say, crafty techniques before, in the face of far smaller competition than that posed by open source.
Our interview may not have answered all the questions people have but it gave our listeners the opportunity to hear the Mono project leader’s thoughts, direct from his own mouth. Most importantly, though, we have encouraged debate. Debate is essential in all communities and particularly in ours, as it goes through a period where commercial interests offer both fantastic opportunities and unknown threats.
February 23rd, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I think Miguel simply didn’t appreciate the suggestions that something he has devoted so much time to was essentially a waste of time. But that is what some members of the community think, so you had to discuss it and get his opinions.
I don’t think you guys were hostile, you were just trying to get him to respond to the points you were making.
February 23rd, 2005 at 4:22 pm
I don’t think you were hostile either - I actually thought that Miguel had his hackles raised quite early on, and wasn’t taking the time to listen to the questions properly. I actually thought he was a little bit evasive at times too.
Some of the posts I have seen kicking about have been very unfair, IMHO. I also think that there is a large section of the Linux community who are concerned about Mono, and that you were right to question him on it.
mrBen
February 28th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Ditto. I can understand how Miguel always gets the same questioning of what he’s doing and it must be tough putting so much work into something to just see it shot down by others without them really giving it the time of day BUT Aq’s questioning was fair as it is a major issue with Mono and it gave Miguel the chance to defend it…