[Ilugc] ILUGC - Should'nt the name should change
- From: ramanraj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ramanraj K)
- Date: Sun Jul 25 19:30:54 2004
Suraj Kumar wrote:
I dont understand. "use" is a loose term. For that matter my own
organisation uses gcc heavily just because "its a great tool and it
works.". Has nothing to do with the philosophy.
"Use" is a very general word, and I guess, here, you mean running gcc,
which is different from copying, modifying or redistributing gcc itself.
There is nothing in the GPL to stop a user from churning out
proprietary software using [meaning, running] GPL'ed software.
I thought that the free software philosophy was meant to appeal to
software developers. Suraj, you are into music, and have you listened
to the Free Software Song by RMS? I guess that sums up philosophy and
advocacy :)
General users generally are a little far away from philosophy. They are
more worried if the software could be used on their system, how much the
distro will cost, whether we can support their problems etc. and most of
their immediate concerns are usually very far away from philosophy. But
once the user starts using free software, matures, and soon starts
thinking and acting like a developer, which I think will be the rule if
users get to know their system well, then, they may take in the
philosophy to become competent developers.
Infact there are
serious differences between the organisation's ideals and the FSF or
the GPL.
If an organization consciously rejects ideals, we may not be that
anxious about their ideals and the actions which follow their thinking.
Maintenance of good ethical values is the _only_ security available, and
much of the free software philosophy is as old as the hills, atleast in
India.
Do people ("ethical people"[?]) have to credit FSF just
because they use the tool?
Credit could be gracefully given without waiting for the authors to ask
for it :)
Just curious because I might use free tools
for things *completely* irrelevant to software.
Of course, software is not written so that we can write more software
with it, but to meet some real human needs :)
Other related posts: