"Bob Young" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted [EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:16:29 -0700:
> Not really, *most* people will be, just as "enslaved" even if they do use > a GPLed version of the software. Keepin' this one brief. "Not really" back at you, too, as the often used car with a welded shut hood analogy makes clear. Not everyone is a mechanic either, and many haven't the faintest urge to touch stuff under the hood, yet even those appreciate the value of a hood that opens, and being able to take their car to someone besides the dealer for service. Just because I don't understand C/C++ myself doesn't mean I want the software source hood welded shut on anything /I/ choose to run! As I said in a parallel post, the fact that Sun was significantly later to the AMD64 party than most FLOSS projects of similarly common use in the community is definitely significant. Had Java been open source, it's a pretty good bet it would have been ported far sooner than it was, particularly given the number of folks with funds or employees to invest in the project that run java as one component on their server infrastructure. Of course, something that needs said that often gets overlooked in all this is that I do *NOT* expect or demand that everyone else hold the same viewpoint I do. I have a pretty strong personal belief system in this area and recognize it as such. While I agree it'd be /nice/ if everyone had a similar belief, I recognize that's not the reality, and further recognize that an attempt to force it on others would be as counter-freedom as that which I despise. My tough standards are my own to live by, if I can, nobody else's unless they want to adopt them as well. Just because I have strong views on a subject and am not afraid to voice/type them, doesn't mean I can't respect other viewpoints as well -- they just aren't /my/ viewpoints. Sometimes that point gets lost in the debate and folks seem to think I'm demanding they have the same standards. Far from it! One must come to such a realization on one's own, and forcing it (1) won't work, (2) is actively counterproductive, and (3) would be counter to the very values I hold so dear, to the point that the very idea is anathema (yes, that's a strong word, but chosen deliberately as precisely what I mean) to me! -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman -- [email protected] mailing list
