Re: Balmer Sez... "Linux is Communism"
- From: Raghuram Viswanadha <raghu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: technocracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 19:15:07 -0500 (EST)
I agree with Steve. Open software is about freedom and democracy.
The French government which is percieved (AFAIK) to be one of the most
pro-democratic governments has embraced open-source development and now
requires that every software product used in France should be open
source.(There may be other financial or political reasons, but still)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/Digital/Columnists/2000-07/eva100700.shtml
Raghu
> How, pray tell, is the idea of open source code related to a failed
> socio-political / economic regime?
>
> Under communist China, your life is strictly controlled by the government.
> An example would be having to ask the government for permission to live and
> work in a different city, say in the event you want to live with your spouse
> who works in another city. With free software, you can modify the code and
> share it with anyone, anytime, anywhere.
>
> Freedom, is an anathema to communisim, but is at the very core of the free
> software. To say that free software is essentially communism is to greatly
> misunderstand everything it's about and insult me and everyone else who
> believes in it.
>
> If I had to relate everything to political systems, I would call
> commerical software communistic, in that it serves only a very few while the
> many whom use it are controlled by it. I would call Free software
> democratic, because you have the freedom to choose it, or not, and you are
> free to make of it what you will.
>
> - Steve
>
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