On 12/5/06, Andy Sy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
You definitely sound like someone who has been drinking the Richard Stallman Kool-Aid. I DO NOT choose a tool because of its license, I choose it because it is practical and fits my needs.
Oh c'mon man, you can do better than that can you? I could rebut with "hell you've been drinking the M$ Kool-Aid" but maybe I could let it slide. If you choose a tool/software because its practical then good for you. I however do believe its more than that.
It just so happens that tools with open-source licenses are very often the most practical tools to use, but that in no way means that it will always be the most suitable tool in every situation. In other words, appropriateness IS paramount.
No sir, things just don't happen like that. You use OSS tools because its practical for you. The people who created most of those tools you find practical didn't make them just for practical reasons.
Closed source software still form a rich part of the ecosystem, and people espousing politically-based agendas to kill them on the basis of ideology should be spanked and scolded: "Bad commie! Bad commie!" :-P
Are you calling me a communist? That is pretty adult of you to say that. Actually, I'm not. I just happen to really like FOSS. The truth is many of the people who develop these tools believe in some way that socially it is a good thing. If these tools you find practical to use were created simply because it seemed practical, how do you explain the motive of sharing it with the rest of the world? They solved their problem so why would they feel the need to help others solve theirs and share their code?
What does "freedom to use the tools" mean? I'm certainly free to use or not use closed source tools. You're the one taking my freedom away when you say I should not use closed source tools because they are 'evil' in some way.
You're free to use whatever tools you like and whatever you find practical. Noone is taking your freedom to use closed source tools.
I guess it IS a social issue in the sense that there are some who would rather that people in the software business not be able to make a living directly from *writing* software. I am sure once that is accomplished the next step would be to require that software "services" also be rendered freely.
Hmmm, nice touch branching into the hypothetical. But sad to say that idea is quite flawed. First of all, writing is an "act" hence a service. If someone were to hire you to write a piece of software you are essentially rendering a service. To require someone to render a service for free is illegal. The thing is, unless you sell off-the-shelf software, FOSS doesn't really hurt you. If your in the business of providing customers with end-to-end solutions tailor-fitted to a customer's needs you actually stand to benefit from using FOSS. And so do your customers. There is a lot of opportunity to do business using FOSS.
Closed source has its inherent disadvantages so leave things be and let open-source survive or disappear on its own merits. Stop trying to push artificial agendas. People seem to forget the collaborative nature of the Internet is what was ultimately responsible for the massive success of open-source software. If the Internet were not around, the quality and amount of open-source software would certainly not be able to challenge that of closed source the way it does today.
Artificial agendas? In the business world I believe they call that "marketing". What is ultimately responsible for the success of OSS is that people who believed in the same things worked together to find the solutions no matter where they were in the world. The Internet was merely the venue.
In fact, ideology and politics only play a minor role in OSS' global success today. Stallman and Co. are essentially just glomming onto the 'Net phenomenon like they did Linus' kernel.
The "net phenomenon" was built on FOSS. Think about that for a minute. -- RAGE CALLAO Free Software :: empower :: educate _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List plug@lists.linux.org.ph (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
