2010/9/22 Praseed Pai <[email protected]> > RMS was a great programmer and it so happened that he started the movement > out of his personal context (he was in). He (re)gained the legitimate > relevence in the Free and Open Source Movement by advocating the prefix GNU > before the Linux Operating System (Kernel ). The licensing scheme was > ingenious and the world we live in is a different place now because of his > contribution.
Do you know what happened between 1984 and 1990 in Free and Open Source Movement? > > MIT License , BSD licence and other licenses were there before stallman got > into the game. Those group claim that they are also Free software guys. Then > stallman and his FSF came up with four freedom mantra. Are you saying that MIT and BSD does not come under four freedoms mantra? > RMS has got every right to profess his ideals and there is nothing wrong with > following him as well. > > Then guys who want to see "utopian" world came to the scene ( like Eben > Moglen , Dr. Sasi Kumar [ some call him "local stallman" ] etc ) and started > influencing the people. The people who are using software as a hobby , watch > movies , send emails and others can follow them without much problem. It is your view. I respect it, though I disagree completely with it. > ESR ( Eric S Raymond ) and others created OSI to cater to a audience who make > a living through software. Those people ( which includes me and some in this > group ) will have a nuetral stand in the case of fourth freedom (Freedom > clause #3 ). Thus the difference of opinion. Did you even read Open Source Definition given by OSI? Are you sure OSI does not care about fourth freedom? Can you quote from OSI site to validate your assertion? > Likewise , each member of this group will be having his own personal reason > to be in here. Exactly, and for some that reason to be here is the politics of Free Software. > > I like Free Software (with four freedoms in the case of system software). > Proprietory software is a reality at the commercial space (it is going to be > like that !), it should co-exist with FOSS to give us a better world. You have a right to keep that view. At the same time you have to respect the views of others who does not agree with you. There are people who believe every software should be free. And many people work on creating Free Software replacements to proprietary software. Some people are ready to sacrifice and some are not. > I will take an example , where duty and deeds can be contradictory > > Take the lawyers who appeared for Ajmal Kasab. Those lawyers will be in a > dilemma , > whether to obey their Dharma ( duty - to their country ) or Karma (deed > - alligeance to their profession ). In this case , they should give emphasis > to the latter to complete their obligatory system duties. I don't see there is a conflict in this case. But I don't think this is the right place for that discussion. If you are interseted we can have that debate off list. > > A software professional who believes in FSF's free software mantra might be > asked to write Windows or MAC OS X software. At this point of time , he is in > the lawyer shoes ! > > > At least some people are in this group will be in the above dilemma. By > saying , people who use proprietory systems as lesser mortals , we are > offending them ,, r8 ? I think you are talking about private software (software that is not published) here. There is no conflict between private software and Free Software. Many software developed by companies like Wipro, Infosys are specific to one customer and they have all the freedoms. So they are not in conflict with Free Software. see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html for more on this > > What is the way out ? > > I will give an anecdote here. Last week,i went to CEC chengannur to give a > talk on Cross Platform programming. After the session , i understood that > there is large interest in Linux Programming ( I have suggested them to > invite me for a workshop ) . Same is the case with other colleges (this is > based on the interaction i had with students ). > > Computer Programming is also an area which we can use to attract people to > the FOSS platform. ( In fact , Computer Programming created this whole > movement ..r8 ?) Many people are interested in programming, but with that you cannot conclude people are only interested in programming. -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് You have to keep reminding your government that you don't get your rights from them; you give them permission to rule, only so long as they follow the rules: laws and constitution. _______________________________________________ Indian Libre User Group Cochin Mailing List http://www.ilug-cochin.org/mailing-list/ http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org #[email protected]
