hi prabhu,
Prabhu Ramachandran wrote on Fri, Sep 20, 2002 at 06:51:13PM +0530:
prabhu> What do you mean by non-free software? Non-GPL software? Or
prabhu> proprietary software that does not come with source? Most GPL
prabhu> fanatics (not that you are one) seem to associate non-GPL software
prabhu> with non-free software.
Thats where the _entire_ misunderstanding took place. By non-free
software what I mean is software that isn't free. software that doesn't
let you view its source code; modify it; redistribute it;.
Maybe I should have written what I mean by non-free software. I thought,
everybody would obviously take XL/BSDL as free software licenses. (-:
prabhu> to see how commercial software works and what features they put in.
prabhu> This way you can enhance your free software equivalents. You should
prabhu> not hesitate to learn, even if you happen to learn from your enemy. :)
Yes. Valid point.
prabhu> rest of the world. It is not. Economy drives many (most?) things and
prabhu> economy is a wierd beast. Its not enough if you idealize a software
prabhu> world. You need to idealize the rest of the world too. Many things
prabhu> are connected you cant change one without changing the other. Todays
true.
prabhu> Maybe maybe not. Some people think otherwise. I think ILUGC's
prabhu> attitude should be to treat all OSS licenses as good enough for
prabhu> discussion. Let each choose his/her own license.
I didn't start off with an opposition to GPL but then the thread saw
various paths and I had to tell that the GPL is a beautiful way of
protecting one's free code. (which then got forked into a BSDL Vs. GPL
flame war and in the process might have seen a good number of civilian
casualty (-;)
prabhu> By free we really mean OSS. Arun wrote those words. He used to run
prabhu> BSD and even did a demo on it. BTW, I've never run BSD myself.
well, OSS is the open source guys who never talk about the freedom
perspective. Though they also work towards creating softwares which are
free they advocate it from the cost perspective. This is bad in a way.
We have all seen the death of netscape and how proprietary software
companies can sell their code at merely 0 price to crush its opponent.
While it is good that a lot of companies come to open up their sources
this way of approach can be crushed easily by the so-called software
giants. But when one talks about software from the freedom
perspective people have a strong reason for accept the software and more
stronger reasons to stop using proprietary softwares.
That is one of the primary differences between the OSS and the Free
software movement. In this thread, I refered to those software which
donot give the basic software freedoms as non-free software (free as not
in GPL alone... (-:)
prabhu> a commercial demo as in people selling you something? Have you never
prabhu> played quake or any decent non-free game? Whats wrong if someone says
I donot know of how many other changed, but ever since I heard RMS'
talks (and the effect of seeing the prophet in seeing in person (-;).
During the "Linux Demo Day" that we conducted I was "proud" of ILUGC and
what we were doing. But what was sad was that we were infact not telling
people of the importance of freedom. Then, I used to think that free
software is anything that is Free of Cost (because that was how all the
media (as in linux*.com websites) told about it). I used to love and use
Opera and such non-free software. Ever since I heard RMS I have only
tried to free myself first from non-free softwares. (Not through
completely yet :(. So bad is how I'm locked)
-Suraj
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