On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 11:52:14AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote: > As far as I understand, the OpenBSD position appears to be that trying > to police users by forbidding them to maintain and retrieve port > metadata about unfree software via this adjunct service (that is not > included in the OS) would be a restriction of the users' freedom. > > Obviously I disagree with that position. This isn't an issue of the > users' freedom at all. It is an issue of what OpenBSD says to the > public.
Then there's the practical side to consider. Most computer users simply do not care about freedom. They only want their stuff to work. Even among the local Linux crowd in my town, if I bring up an issue of freedom I get a frigid response, or even outright anger. Mostly they want a blanket blessing for using Free Software (even when it's not), and they want to stick it to Microsoft. And... they don't want to think, or evaluate, and make a tough choice. So, in that sense GNU, the FSF, and your personal recommendations aren't having the effects they should. Hmm. In the past years I've been using OpenBSD I've had more education on software freedom than the previous decade of using Linux. As a community, OpenBSD users are much more aware of these issues, I believe. If you can accept that, then consider that a more educated user base is more capable of making their own decisions. The ports collection includes some licensing information about each port's Makefile. The binary packages do not contain non-free software at all. So OpenBSD has given me plenty of information to make a choice. So, in practice, OpenBSD is doing just fine to promote software freedoms. If principles are important then it's important to see those principles used in everyday life by the community at large. If you can't recommend OpenBSD from where you stand maybe you should have a fresh look from somewhere just a few feet away. Things look different from here. -- Darrin Chandler | Phoenix BSD User Group | MetaBUG [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://phxbug.org/ | http://metabug.org/ http://www.stilyagin.com/ | Daemons in the Desert | Global BUG Federation
