On 14 sep 2011, at 14.13, Uwe Dippel wrote:
On 09/14/2011 06:28 PM, Rasmus Wikman wrote:
You can't be too extreme; it's social rules and you decide those.
My point is that in the current climate we see corporations as
"future-
proof" solutions because they market them as such and it's a part of
our culture to try to find "future-proof" solutions.
The error that we do is that we forget that all corporate initiatives
were built on other initiatives. Google would be nothing without
webpages, they've built their business on placing ads on top of
information they do not own. Webpages would be nothing without HTML.
HTML would be nothing without CERN. CERN would be nothing without
European cooperation. And so on.
So it's just societal evolution. FLOSS is a foregone conclusion of
the
current rat race, not an alternative. Sticking to FLOSS is "future-
proof", at least for now. :)
I can see where you are coming from, though I don't know if you are
part of Qi in the sense that you contribute financially or are
financially dependent on Qi, or so. Talking is always easy with a
full stomach and a roof over one's head.
What is, what would be the point and the impact one can have on
mankind when one comes out with a 100% Free and all and anything
thingy that doesn't pay for its costs, doesn't pay for ads, doesn't
make it into /. and finally sees the shop of its manufacturers
closing down after producing a dozen of thingys, of which only three
sold?
Then better, and at a higher impact, you sold 1 million, and
attached the tag 'I tried to free myself - though didn't succeed
fully, yet. Help me to be better next time!' I am confident, that
many more woke up, discussed, became aware and supported the next
round of production of thingy.
Richard Stallman has the liberty of following the strict path and
avoiding all non-free software totally. Software is 'gratuit' in
this sense of the word; except of his own expenditures, no cost
involved. When one does Free Hardware, there is expenditure and in
the end boxes have to be shipped. Only software can be downloaded.
We should keep this in mind and not raise the bar for those who
actually invested their money and have to kind of live on a Free
Hardware project too high. I am in agreement with Stallman, when he
said something like he doesn't want Free Software as means and ends;
he wants to change the society. I am not for Free Hardware to sit in
my cave and be proud of having it. Free Hardware as such is
meaningless to me, please don't get me wrong here.
I agree!
I think that free software was/is easy, hardware will be a tough bite
to swallow for western civilisation since we've deconstructed our
factories and outsourced it to Asia, for the most part.
But as with all masshysterias, the Earth is still below our feet and
building a new factory in Europe or USA to produce what they do in
Asia won't be too hard.
It's just a matter of getting our hands dirty again. We haven't
evolved since the stone age very much, so it shouldn't be too hard,
except on our pride (or some other psychosocial dominance concept).
Most of us are just too afraid to work at the factory floor. It's been
out of our culture for so long, replaced with shallow dreams based on
Hollywoodian ideals. (Rant, rant.)
Who's to say intellectual community work shouldn't be a requirement
for everyone to do along with some manual labour? Political/social
rules and laws that we set.
(And, AFAIK, humans need fresh air, clean water and healthy food to
survive. This should be the global cooperation motto. Everything else
should be left up to discussion now with both the current economical
system crashing and our planet giving in to our exploitation.)
Rasmus
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