I wrote: > > > I'm interested in the free as in freedom part of what ILUGD is > > about. The > > impression I get is that ILUGD tends to be heavily focussed on the > > free as > > in freedom part.
Kenneth Gonsalves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > in which case you have to focus on FOSS - regardless of platform, > rather than linux or the more narrow GNU/Linux No. FOSS has ambiguity in the implied freedom, in particular it doesn't differentiate between GNU and BSD styles of freedom. I wrote: > > So there is indeed a religious bias in ILUGD against *BSD/windOSS/ > > macOSS. Kenneth wrote: > you have a bias against things like freebsd, openbsd and pcbsd too? Yes. They're a sect that are better than proprietary. But they have some flawed doctrines. > afaik they are more free than your GNU/Linux. Sure, but the fact that you seem to regard them as better as a result of this greater freedom is the flaw. The question comes down to a bias of: Is such a self-destructive freedom morally justifiable? Like I said, it is a religious bias. Me and some others regard the extra freedom of the BSD style licences as being analogous to the granting freedom to a plantation holder to own slaves, or perhaps granting freedom to the religious authorities to burn non-believers at the stake in an auto da fé. Just because a freedom is there, doesn't mean you should seize it. Some things are immoral, even if you are free to do them. So those immoral things should be specifically restricted. The GPL, for those who are wondering about this analogy, and in particular how it applies to software, has a restriction that is designed to prevent apropriation and non-sharing of code. In contrast, the BSD allows a company to take the code, alter it and sell it as its own without accrediting the original developer, and without sharing the modified code. Which is something that Theo de Raadt, a leading BSD developer has somewhat ironically bemoaned. Where is the danger in this in free culture and works? Well, in software, there are several known examples where Microsoft has taken BSD code, altered it, and tried to lock users in to their way of doing things so that they can exploit them forever after. To an extent they have succeeded more than failed. In music, the song "Happy Birthday" was appropriated by Warner Brothers under dubious circumstances and is still under copyright. George Michael's "Last Christmas" was almost certainly a lift of Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You" and he got into trouble for that. It's a whole lot more than all this, but the tenet I hold is that freedom of expression requires protection from locking in/fencing in. > the One True Way is FOSS - regardless of platform I wish it was that simple. > I would not agree that Freedel has been on a reasonable footing. > Edition 2 was a bit of a flop. Why do you say that? > In that case GNU/Linux is even narrower than linux and if you are > excluding BSDs and FOSS for other platforms, and i suppose in the > cultural world anything written, composed, drawn with proprietary > software even if released under CC - I dont think you going to go > very far. Depending on; creating; and using free-as-in-beer and proprietary works to move to true freedom is not wrong. GNU software itself was built on a non-free platform initially. But once you have truly free alternatives available, it is wrong to promote non-free works. > We cant afford to > have various groups setting up conferences and planning to hold the > same conference in different parts of the country. It is not going to > happen - and will be disruptive. Freed doesn't have the same agenda as Foss.in or Linux Asia, though there will be some overlap. And rather than disruption, I'd regard it as competition. Competition is good as far as I am concerned - it is a selection pressure to improve things. PJ _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
