On Thu, May 10, 2001 at 08:56:00PM +0200, WDS wrote:
[MS]'d surely like if only the very idealistic would be "allowed" to write free software -- then there would be much less free software for them to worry about. Of course, they
While I appreciate the (GPL) software written by people playing the open source game, they are not "allowed" to be called free software writers for one reason: the lack of community.
The basis of free software remains: community support. No matter how good relations you have with politicians and businesses, they matter nothing if you are one yourself. If you agree with all the money making with them, you won't object to "minor" changes to the laws themselves to smoothen the inconvenient facets of freedom.
GPL is a mere license, and (free) software is mere information. No magic there.
The only obstacle to that is and will be the grassroots. Politicians have power because people stay away from the barricades. More benevolent politicians is no answer, since the pendulum could and will swing backwards at any time. Reformists are a mere sedative.
Writing free software and trying to manage should really be seen as a viable alternative. At least you could then honestly be proud of what you do and are, instead of having another faceless wage slave position at another faceless corporation. I find it actually rather disturbing to hear independence being called idealistic (ie. unrealistic).
proprietary software). Surely they'd like to have us believe we can't influence politicians -- so they can do it more easily. And
The question really isn't "can we affect politicians?", but "should we?" The answer for first is "yes", but the outcome would be most uninspiring. I think the latter is a "no".
Let the reality gap between the grassroots and the nice tidy place where they live in grow. All that remains for us then is to defend from their inevitable but feeble (they are few, we are many) invasions and we would then live with only free software. (And more, but that's not a discussion for this list.)
Enough already... FSFE is better than no FSFE, but I'd like to see a more radical initiative.
they probably also like to see this "infighting" going on here. So I think you're making the M$ spies that certainly monitor this list very happy.
They don't care, they do it only for their paycheck.