[Pan-users] Re: OT: GNU/Linux Was: clearing headers?

[Duncan]

David Kelly <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Thu, 09 Oct
2008 08:28:46 -0500:

> A wise man once taught me to watch for one of the most effective means
> of telling a lie: be the first to make the claim then repeat it over and
> over to hammer it home. People believe what they repeatedly hear without
> thinking. 

Something to think about...

> FSF does this by claiming their software is free. While there
> is no monetary cost up front to use GPL software, GPL is far from "free"
> or even "freedom."

Now on that, I'll differ (but thanks for the agreement to the other 
aspect, in the part I snipped).

>From your comment it sounds like you're a "freedom for the developer to 
take the freedom from the users" guy, as most people in the BSD camp (as 
well as the MS camp) tend to be.  I understand the position but can't 
agree with it.  I'm a "freedom for the user to obtain the sources and 
make and distribute changes" guy, aka a "FSF four freedoms" guy.  To me, 
failing to respect that user freedom is not only a violation of my rights 
as a rational and creative human being, but an insult, since it implies  
that I don't deserve the basic respect and rights due a rational and 
creative human being.  Well, either that, or the person trying to remove 
the rights simply doesn't respect human rights at all, and as such is 
headed down the path which ultimate end is genocide and the like.

As for credit, yes, they deserve and get credit for the apps they 
created.  Great.  But insisting on ranking one's own credit so highly for 
a collected work, as with the SugarCRM license, simply wouldn't and 
couldn't work if everyone were to demand it.  That's what was wrong with 
SugarCRM (before they switched position and adopted the GPL), it's what 
was wrong with the XFree86 policy change that lead to the XFree86/X.org 
fork, and it's what is wrong with the GNU/Linux demands.  I clearly 
respect Stallman and his general beliefs enough to quote him, and they 
shape much of how I live my computing life, but I simply can't see why 
/he/ can't see this, except to chalk it up to the personal quirks/
failings that we all have in some area of our life.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman