On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 01:10:11PM +0100, Dave Crossland wrote:
> A friend of mine sympathetic to softrware freedom movement but who
> lately pointedly says "open source" notes that Jefferson campaigned to
> abolish slavery while owning slaves, and he makes all the software he
> writes available as free software, but doesn't mind using proprietary
> software until it can conveniently be discarded.

I think this is misleading. Jefferson, and I am guessing wildly here,
probably kept the slaves as this was his primary source of income and
social status. Without those to things his campaign would have been
futile.

I hardly think that his situation is similar to the "zomg, i just
totally have to get that new mac air so i can sit in starbucks
drinking my extra-mocha-choca-decaf and prepare notes on free software
using keynote" situation.

-- 
Noah Slater <http://bytesexual.org/>

"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as
society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman


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