> Someone else pointed out that you can't be sure of that conclusion. > In that other world
What other world? The hypothetical world in which proprietary software does not exist and therefore the company Oracle with its actual business model does not exist either. Someone else asserted that in this hypothetical world there would be no data base equally good. I and another explained how that assumption is not valid. In that hypothetical world, there might or might not be an equally good free data base. Unless you believe you can prove positive statements about that hypothetical world, there is no need to go further down that tangent. > , users could have made other arrangements to develop a free data base > that is as good or better. The lack of today's easy-way-out could > have motivated them to do so. They are not doing so with database software. What you are saying is hypothetical. Whatever we say about a hypothetical alternate world is inevitably hypothetical ;-). Well, people could easily say, "You have your license on your software and you have your freedom. So what? Why should I care about you having achieved your freedom? We don't care about your freedom and plan on buying our software and locking ourselves into a licensing model. " People exist who do say that. They are people who do not value their freedom. Their existence is what makes the GNU project necessary, and what makes this discussion necessary. We must be careful not to drift into thoughtlessly "helping" them get what they want. Freedom of what? Someone having the freedom of choice and agreeing to a licensing structure. The "freedom" to subject oneself to someone else's dominion is not really freedom. Calling it that is an abuse of language. Our mission is to give users freedom in using software. Since there are fools who do not appreciate freedom and are willing to surrender it, achieving our mission entails refusing to do what they ask us to do. They have a right to their opinions, but we don't heed their opinions. _______________________________________________ gnu-emacs-sources mailing list gnu-emacs-sources@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-emacs-sources