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good heavens, not this drivel again pleasegood heavens, not this drivel again pleasePosted Feb 21, 2012 15:50 UTC (Tue) by felixfix (subscriber, #242)In reply to: good heavens, not this drivel again please by pboddie Parent article: VLC 2.0 released
Go ahead and read "communism" and "religion" pop culture references into my comment, or fail to see any valid comparison. That's what the FSF does too, cover its ears and pretend its opinions are still relevant. They used to matter a lot more, before they became so shrill and isolated. That's the real message. The FSF and Richard Stallman come across as a wannabe Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, wanting the whole world to do as they dictate merely because they say so. Just because they don't have that power doesn't make their message any less obnoxious.
Sometimes leaders need to look behind them to make sure someone is still following.
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good heavens, not this drivel again please Posted Feb 21, 2012 16:03 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]
Actually, you weren't the source of most of the blatant references to religious and political clichés, but terms like "true believers" certainly help to keep the discussion civilised, I always find.
And my point that people project undue influence onto the FSF (or other organisations, along with anyone who happens to agree with them in any way) is illustrated very well by your response. I sometimes wonder, in an era when anyone and everyone has an opinion and where filtering out those opinions is a part of everyday life, what motivation anyone would have to complain about the influence of an organisation by comparing it to a selection of large corporations who have far more influence over policy, commerce and the lifestyle of individuals than the FSF with its comparatively modest campaigning.
good heavens, not this drivel again please Posted Feb 21, 2012 20:31 UTC (Tue) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]
So we don't need to worry about the FSF going off the deep end until they're big enough that it actually matters?
Not sure I agree with that.
good heavens, not this drivel again please Posted Feb 22, 2012 12:57 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]
Well, if enough people object to the FSF's views, the growth of the organisation and its influence will be self-limiting, although the campaigns that seem to annoy some people seem fairly innocuous: spelling out the disadvantages to society and the end-user about things like DRM and various control features in, say, Windows is really only about telling people things that they may (or may not) want to hear.
Of course you will always get people who will claim "brainwashing" and that people are somehow tricked into supporting such organisations. Again, this is a laughable assertion when hundreds of millions of people probably have to listen to the Windows jingle every day using products (and being shown advertisements) made by an industry that has systematically reduced choice over the last two decades, with most of these people living in societies where brand loyalty is regarded more highly than objective consideration of any particular set of issues.
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