Below is why I don't think that "open source" can be a useful first step to help people understand software freedom, but even if you still disagree, I think there are enough people working on Step 1, and very very few people working on Step 2, so if you want to help the two step process, please work on Step 2.
Steven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Open Source is based on certain aspects of some of the four > freedoms. The term "Open source" was coined so that people could hide the issues of liberty when talking about the software. It refers to almost exactly the same set of software, but it brands the issue as being a technical or implementation detail rather than being about valuable freedoms. Said another way, the purpose of "open source" is to keep people non-philosophical about software... > Maybe Open Source Software could be the first step for the > 'non-philosophical' majority of humanity to accept and grow into the > rather revolutionary ideas of Free Software. The software can certainly be a first step for people to value society's ability to participate in the development of the software they use. Calling the software "open source" makes it less likely that this will happen. Calling it "free software" makes it more likely. -- Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ Support Free Software and GNU/Linux http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ Join FSFE's Fellowship: http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ http://www.fsfe.org _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
