On Thursday 17 August 2006 03:01, Mike Lundy wrote: > I told a friend that there were some in the community who called > proprietary software slaveryware. His response? "Holy shit!" If that term > spreads, we can forget about convincing otherwise logical people that free > software is the Right Way. There are two problems with it:
I can't help to respond here. > > 1) It's incorrect. There is nothing at this point in time that causes you > to be enslaved by proprietary software. There are stories of speculative > fiction, such as "Right to Read" and other, better written stories; those > stories are just that- fiction. Microsoft does not beat you or chain you to > their operating system. Sun does not whip you to use java. Members of the > wider computer community may, through their own adoption, but Sun has > nothing to do with it. You must convince members of your community to stay > away from proprietary software. This leads me to the second error. Actually, it is more subtle. Microsoft does not force you to use windows. One uses windows because of office. One uses microsoft office not because of microsoft, but because *the whole world* uses microsoft office. It is called network effects and is the cause of the microsoft monopoly. The slavery part is that we are basically at the mercy of the owner of the monopoly. (You know the main competitor of windows XP? It's the earlier releases, same goes for office) > 2) It's intentionally offensive. The end goal of the free software > movement, as I understand it, is to convince everyone that freedom in > software is something to strive for. Some people do not immediately see the > light of this, and must be convinced through logical means. Convincing > people to see the benefits of free software is difficult enough. Stealing a > cliche- can you imagine explaining to your mother about slaveryware? If you > use that term, you then have to convince people that that term is accurate. > The discussion will be about the slaveryware /word/ instead of the free > software /idea/. That is counterproductive, and will likely cause you to be > dismissed as a extremist (though, hopefully not by your mother). > Intentionally offending the very people we need to convince does not help > us at all. While it is accurate, I agree with you that it is indeed offensive. Paul -- Paul de Vrieze Gentoo Developer Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.devrieze.net
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