gNewSpeak

gNewSpeak

Posted Feb 10, 2007 13:47 UTC (Sat) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341)
In reply to: gNewSpeak by ldo
Parent article: gNewSense makes sense

What you don't seem to be getting is that noone's forced to use gNewSense - anyone who wants to have the freedom (or "freedom") to choose propietary software can use Ubuntu, for example. It's not like there's just one Linux distribution - there's literally hundreds, and many include proprietary stuff.

So much for a lack of choice.

(Of course, whether being able to choose proprietary software is really freedom is another question; I think it's just like asking whether people in a democracy should have the right to vote for the abolishment of democracy. Are you truly free if you can't give up your freedom, knowingly and voluntarily? I'd say yes, although I acknowledge that other opinions are also valid.)

But having a distro that forces you to choose only Free software seems like a contradiction in terms: you can't force people to be free. That's the kind of logic that led to the invasion of Iraq.

While I share your opinion on the attack on Iraq, I'm pretty sure there's some version of Godwin's law that should apply here - comparing the creation of a distro that - unlike many others also in existence - does not include proprietary software and that noone's forced to use to an unwarranted attack on another country that cost more than half a million lives is, to be frank, ridiculous. Sorry, but really...

(And if there's no version of Godwin's law for this, there should be one.)

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