On Jan 4, 2008 5:47 PM, dermiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jan 4, 2008 11:41 PM, Paul de Weerd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > For some reason, earlier mail on the strawllman-thread did not make it > > to the list. I'm copying parts of some of these mails inline. Note > > that both mails were CC:'ed to misc@ (so they were intended to end up > > on the list. As such, i don't think using them inline here is a > > problem) > > > > > However, I expect you're exaggerating when you say that your situation > > > is that grave. There are many jobs people can do in the Netherlands. > > > If you lost this particular job -- which could happen for many reasons > > > -- the result would most likely just be some discomfort. > > > > I've been working in IT for well over 10 years now. I can promise you > > that, had I denounced non-free software, I would not have been able to > > pay for my food or my rent/mortgage for the past 10 years. > > > > I very much enjoy working with free software. Some of that stuff is > > simply amazing. But it is not of this world to think that more than a > > handful of people can make their living without ever touching non-free > > software in this world. If you're waiting for this to happen : dont > > hold your breath. > > > > Yes, there are many jobs people can do in the Netherlands (and in > > other countries). My point is that most (if not all) IT-jobs require > > the employee to somehow interface with non-free software. In the > > general case, you can not simply refuse to work with non-free software > > and expect to keep your job. > > > > Paul 'WEiRD' de Weerd > > In February 2004, Mr Stallman did a keynote at an event held in Paris > called "Solutions Linux" (or stg along theses lines) about free software. > When someone asked him how to make a living of IT without using or > promoting non-free software, his answer was that you don't have to > work in the IT field to contribute to free software, and he'd prefer see > a kernel contributor being a taxi driver than administrating Windows > workstations (It may not be the very same words, but the intent is the > same). > > FOS projects being what they are, they do not require any kind of > qualification to participate, only the final product (code, doc) is taken > in account. So I could be a gardener and contribute to projects I > estimate worthy. From a very abstract point of view, that's coherent. > > But contributing is not an abstract process: a contributor has to run > into a problem to solve it. Personnally, I never managed to solve a > problem I couldn't grasp. And as a gardener, I'm not sure software will > be my first source of problems. Another point is if contributions are > my only contact with software, the range of my perceptions will be > greatly narrowed. You can't expect creativity to come from this > overconstrained setup: solutions often come from the 10.30 coffee > break, when you discuss with your colleagues. > > So, I'm the first one to say we should judge on the results not the look, > but I think it's way harder to write quality code when not in IT.
I thought you were leading up to a last clause of, "but I think it's way harder to know which quality code to write, when not in IT." To which I would have answered, "But what about the public bug tracking system? Wouldn't that suffice for highlighting, to a person not employed in IT (but still a hacker), the code that needs to be written?" Todd
