On Fri, 8 Dec 2006, Dean Michael Berris wrote:
The point was that the communist edict of everyone owning everything
therefore owning nothing, that the state provides and what the state
owns is owned by the people, that there is a commune that owns
everything and includes everyone disallows the people for deciding for
themselves what they want. This is what the mentality of "Software
should be available to everyone, and that everyone should be able to
do whatever one wants with it, just so long as it is available to
everyone too" is all about.
Uh, no. You totally misunderstand both communist philosophy and that of
free software.
The commies were talking about both real property and means of production
being owned by the STATE (their euphemism for "the people). Centralized
control and social aggregation of power into the state are the hallmarks
of communism. The Free Software ideal, in stark contrast, does not take
away the means of production or the ownership of software from anyone. In
fact, it is the very idea of private property and private enterprise that
actually protects free software. Without it, FOSS could not continue to
exist.
I was pointing out that if you think FOSS will be cheaper in the long
run, then think again: you need to pay people to administer, at least
reward the people who will modify monetarily, and "foster the growth
of the local software industry" thus means putting money to the
effort.
You have to do the same with proprietary software in addition to the
outrageous license fees. Windows systems, for example, need far more
maintenance and even more administrators than Linux systems. So you will
have to pay more for upkeep too. Come off it, Dean, that's plain FUD
you're spreading. Time and again it has been shown that using open source
results in dramatically far lower maintenance costs and TCO.
I was suggesting that if it's alright for someone to be under a
dictatorial communist rule, that the person was a communist and
presumably would agree with what the "mandatory FOSS" and "FOSS in the
long run will be cheaper" proposition.
You were making a baselss suggestion then. It's the other way around. The
communists would hate FOSS and the very idea of mandating FOSS in
government because it empowers users in government!
Really, these scare tactics about the "communist" leranings of FOSS have
been debunked so many times one would truly have to uninformed or a liar
to use them. I would like to think you're the former. Please try to
educate yourself about the philosophical basis of FOSS before makign
statements about it. Please. This is a serious request, not a polemical
one.
God bless!
--[Manny [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Member: Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications
Alternative Information and Opinion at http://www.phnix.net
Pro-Life Philippines website -- http://www.prolife.org.ph
--[Open Minds Philippines]--------------------[openminds.linux.org.ph]--
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