Fringe Ryder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > And let's remember that for the vast majority (a really vast majority) of > users, Windows was essentially free, certainly a sunk cost (meaning
And please let's remember that this is about freedom, not cost. Cost is largely irrelevant.
> rainbow. There's always another hill in the way. For me, open-source is
> close enough if I like the language, and is what I release. And by writing
Is it because you don't understand free software that you only aspire to "open-source"?
I think it might be because you're using the correct definition rather than the thread's contextual definition that you ask that. The term "free software" is too nebulous; you yourself corrected Jonathan on his usage of it. There are definitions of "free software" which I meet; my projects are all under GPL.
But several of them are also on SourceForge, which, as David pointed out two weeks ago, may be considered a non-free platform.
And I also build Windows-specific installers, for my family and less technical friends, even when the project is cross-platform. Those run on, as Jonathan complained, non-free platforms. And since the bulk of my work and their usage is on that platform, that's what I must support.
So while I meet the usual definition of "free software", there are purists for a philosophy even more rigorous than the standard FSF/GNU ones, such as that Jonathan expounded, that might imply that it is you who don't "understand free software."
The trouble with such terms in a conversation or thread is that they depend entirely on the definition, which may in turn depend on the intent of the first person using the term. Do you agree with Jonathan's definition of "free software"? (Obviously not, given your request that he not redefine it.) But given his definition, do you believe IN "free software"?
Given Jonathan's definition of it, "free software" is not my goal; GPL'd open-source is. Given YOUR definition, I probably already have demonstrated a very high commitment to "free software".
-Tony McNamara-
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