Miguel de Icaza a traitor?! unnecessary politics hurts free and open source software

Every now and then a story pops up that I have trouble believing at first...

According to Thom Holwerda, Richard Stallman, the legendary visionary behind GNU, Emacs, and much goodness in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) universe said Miguel de Icaza "is basically a traitor to the Free Software community". A tasteful and diplomatic response from Miguel de Icaza - good on him for keeping cool.

This is unfortunate. Both of these gentlemen have contributed much and clearly have a place of respect in many people's minds. It's a pity that politics like this have to crop up from time to time. For what it's worth, I believe strongly that companies do indeed have a place with FOSS. Companies using and developing businesses around FOSS creates jobs, internships, research grants, and collaboration opportunities, and can also contribute significantly back to the FOSS code. For example, note the contributions to the Linux kernel from IBM, Intel, Redhat, Novell, and so forth.

Obviously corporate interests can get out of hand. I would suggest the best way to keep them in check is not to eat our own. This kind of thing makes it hard for the corporate world to take FOSS seriously.