On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 16:30 +0100, David Kastrup wrote: > Chris Cannam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > An irony of both open source and free software is that they make it > > easy to forget that all software is almost always written by decent > > humans -- for example, by implying that proprietary software > > developers are less moral and so less significant. If my free > > software work puts a company or its developers out of work, then > > that's a problem for my conscience. It's not a victory for free > > software. And it's not "just business", because it's not business. > > I will have damaged people's livelihoods, for fun. > > That particular argument does not hold water at all, sorry. Following > your kind of logic, people caring for peace on Earth are damaging the > livelihoods of weapon producers, decent people mostly, and that merely > for their selfish desire of a world worth living in.
No, this is a bunch of BS. You're equating software producers with weapon producers, who you're equating with evil (and, implicitly, weapon users, a fact which I find personally insulting). That's all wrong, but the salient point is that Chris stipulated that proprietary software producers *aren't* evil! The only way they can be evil is if you stipulate a moral code which dictates as much. They're not torturing babies, for chrissakes. > If their livelihoods get tougher because of a world where work is > shared and exchanged between consenting and cooperating humans, so > much the better. It is a byproduct one can live with. Yeah, ever heard of capitalism? Or do you have a bone to pick with that, too? Seriously, there are better things to do than demonize proprietary software producers. Go kill a terrorist if you need somebody to beat up on, at least you'll be making the world a better place in the process. Last I checked, Microsoft wasn't bombing any subways. -- Pete Bessman http://gazuga.net "So this baby seal walks into a club."
