Want to lose respect for Bertrand Meyer? Just read his essay on open source software. He opens with a lengthy discourse on why Richard Stallman is out in left field — as if everyone doesn’t already know that. Then he goes off on Eric Raymond, not for his views on free software (the theoretical topic at hand), but rather for his views on gun control. He makes a poorly conceived argument about software quality, and then turns back to slamming RMS’s philosophies. The area where I really agree with him is on point 10, where he argues that free software that duplicates functionality from commercial software should acknowledge the work of the designers in creating the software being copied. I also agree with most of the items in his course of action at the end. Ultimately, though, Meyer doesn’t have problems with open source software itself, but rather with some of the personalities behind it. And focusing on that is just as stupid as criticizing Microsoft because you don’t like Bill Gates.