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Today's quizToday's quizPosted Nov 17, 2006 7:59 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)In reply to: Resisting the binary blob by emkey Parent article: Resisting the binary blob
What in particular makes free software more ethical than for pay software?Nothing, considering that free software can also be for pay software. And can those rule be applied generally, or are they specific to software only?If you refer to free vs proprietary software, yes: the rule is that helping others is good, while not sharing good things (like your knowledge) is bad. Not even primary school knowledge, this is kindergarten stuff. Is free software actually free?A very old question; the best answer is to define what you mean by free. This is why the GNU project publishes the free software definition. If you agree with the definition then it is free. Others have a different definition, or an even more different definition. So you get to make the decision. I refuse to be sacrificed for a principle that A, I don't agree with and B, I don't believe to have a factual basis.A principle which you don't seem to understand, since it is pretty practical in nature. And yet you benefit from the fruits of said principle... Well, whatever one says of your position, you are in good company.
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Today's quiz Posted Nov 17, 2006 16:13 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] You imply that the kernel guys don't understand a principle that normal people are supposed to have learned in Kindergarten? You can't be serious.
Today's quiz Posted Nov 18, 2006 10:47 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Not really. It is a bit confusing because there are two sets of principles here. The first one is the set of principles embodied in free software: that software must be free (just as speech, since it is another form of human expression), that proprietary (closed) software is bad, that binary blobs have bad consequences.I explained that this set of principles applies generally because it derives from another, simpler set of principles: that helping others is good, and not sharing good things is bad. Not all children learn these ideas; remember the greedy kid in the corner who has all the goods but no friends. What is worse: we tend to forget those principles as we grow up. What our correspondent here (as well as certain kernel developers) don't seem to understand is that both sets of principles are very much the same; or, being more precise, we do not agree to the extent of the equivalence. Both are practical in nature, since they have immediate, real-world consequences (as the Open Source crowd likes to point out). Both can be theoretically justified (as in games theory or elaborate essays). And both have ethical consequences which you have to consider. Many kernel devs don't think that the Kindergarten principle of helping others necessarily applies to their work, which is fine -- but wrong. Torvalds in particular seems to think that it is only about sharing code between professionals (tit-for-tat, a famous Kindergarten principle + games theoretical concept [as I have just learned]), but that Tivo-like locked down systems (which do not certainly help others) are OK. Again, not enough thought is given to the consequences of one's actions, which is not so surprising since you have to be a bit obsessive to think things through in this manner.
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