分类： IT业界
2007-04-02 23:49:18
by Harry Zass, Tech News Syndicate
April 1, 2007
New York: The American Dental Association announced Friday that they are suing both the and the Linux Foundation over the use of the acronym FLOSS.
The controversy stems over the widespread use of the acronym FLOSS, meaning Free/Libre and Open Source Software, by members of the . The verb 'floss' means to clean the lingering remains of food between the teeth with a silk-like thread, also known as 'floss'
"FLOSS is a registered trademark of the American Dental Association and we will no longer tolerate the use of this acronym to refer to Free and Open Source software" said Larry Incisor, spokesman for the ADA, at a Friday news conference at their main offices in NYC. "You know, we've been saying brush and FLOSS every day for decades now. Well, FLOSS belongs to us. We're trying to associate FLOSS with good dental hygiene. The and Open Source communities are creating tremendous confusion. They're lucky we let them use 'root' - because, you know, we have that patented with 'root canal'", added Incisor.
Linus Torvalds, when asked to comment, remarked: "These acronyms are getting out of hand and I particularly hate the acronym FLOSS anyway. I have told our developers many times on the mailing list, to keep the use of acronyms to a minimum. FLOSS is one of the worst - almost as bad as GNU. I once stopped accepting patches from a developer working on the Asynchronous Subroutine System because he refused to stop referring to it as the 'ASS Patch'"
Eric S. Raymond (who prefers to be called by his initials ESR), defended the practice of using acronyms in the Free Software and Open Source communities. "Developers are pragmatic people who prefer to waste as little time as possible." said Raymond, "If we suddenly had to stop using IMHO, BYOB, WTF and ROTFLMAO and start using the long forms, it would start clogging mail servers around the the world. would look like a minor annoyance compared to the havoc that eliminating acronyms would cause."
Richard Stallman, chairman of the Free Software Foundation (and who prefers people to call him RMS) also defended the coining of acronyms. "Once again, we see a big, entrenched traditional power base, like the ADA, trying to limit our freedom to refer to software in the way we like." When asked if this would hurt , Stallman responded, "First of all, it's called GNU/Linux - that said, I don't see it hurting adoption. Not hurting like having your wisdom teeth pulled, that's for sure."
The American Dental Association has retained the services of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, the same law firm who is representing SCO in their case. The executive director of the Foundation was vacationing in Hawaii and couldn't be reached for comment.
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