Metaphors of Free Software

[Michael Kesper]

Hi,

Am 24.09.2014 15:19, schrieb Garreau, Alexandre:
> On 2014-09-24 at 12:29, Erik Albers wrote:
>> On 23/09/14 15:59, Hugo Roy wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Metaphors when done right can be powerful to convey an idea.
>>> There’s a short article with some good metaphors:
>>>
>>> http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalreports/internetreport/whatisopensource.aspx
>>>
>>>
>>>          [...]
>>
>>>          Democratic: a landslide
>>>
>>>          Like a democracy where anyone can set up their own country if they
>>>          don’t like the leader.
>>
>> what is this for a democracy where I can just set up my own country if I do't
>> like the leader, haha ?
>
> Yeah, it’s more Anarchy with panarchy principles… but we call it
> Democratic because generally speaking people usually use it to speak
> about non-coercive systems. Actually “Anarchic” would better fit, but
> usually people like “Democratic”, even in its wrong meaning, and tend to
> dislike “Anarchic” or to understand it as “disorder” or “chaos”, because
> of lot of old counter-propaganda against anarchism
> (cf. /usr/share/doc/anarchism/html/secA1.html with `apt-get install
> anarchism' under Debian)

I believe in anarchism as much as in communism. (To be clear: not at all).
I'd vote strongly to let politics and religion out of metaphors for Free 
Software.

Bye
Michael