Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 4, 2004 1:41 UTC (Fri) by verzonnen (guest, #9406)
In reply to: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet) by XERC
Parent article: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

I have been following the debate (as far as I can) in Holland and even the "VVD" (political party who's views are simmilar to Bush) stated tonight something along the lines as "we do not want to end up with the same mess as currently exsist in the US"

But I do agree that "private" donations to political parties (at least for the purpose of advertising) are bad for democracy and this may wel be the reason why there is such silly legislation. But I think this is somewhat of topic.

Just to clarify my background, I have also worked for bigger corporations (600+ servers) as a unix administrator and some of those companies where running Linux simply because it made sense to them (technicaly), one I worked for started a very long time ago, without naming names but lets say that company has expanded into the US in a big way ;) Now the reason I found was that some companies did not want to addopt linux or open source is that management could not point the finger at some other company like for example Microsoft or IBM if something went wrong. Now with companies like redhat this is changed as wel. I also do not think there is a need to push Linux, Linux will take over, probably way to fast.

Just to give an example of how civil disobediance can work; In Holland softdrugs are (semi) legal, not because the Dutch think that drugs are good, but because the politicians realized they could not win the war on drugs. The Dutch where just being practical. (The enforcement cost where much higher than treatment) And believe me, the Dutch are not as tolerant as the countries laws suggest ;)

I will continue to use and promote free and open source software regardles. of legislation, I have no money to pay a fine so if country wants to spend money to send and keep me in jail that would be sad, for me and the taxpayer, but it is a price that I am willing to pay.

I also believe software patents are bad for the buisines world as a whole and not just for open source. Open source will continue no matter what. It's more the US economy as a whole that will suffer in a big way if this (anti competitive) legislation is allowed to stand.

I do not think that the OSF should spend money on fighting this crap. It just ends up giving legitimacy to the whole thing and at the same time the OSF is setting itself up as a easy target. It's the user base that wil need to make the change, best thing that could happen is to publish the political candidates views and voting history on this subject in each country/state on the net. Include a letter why OSF think it's bad or good and for the rest and just spend the effort instead on making the open source software even better. I imagine that for a software developer this to be a litle more satisfying than arguing with lawers and/or (corrupt) politicians.

I am not picking a fight here, I just hope that some of the things I said are taken into consideration. Even if I am wrong about this, governments will need to consider this posibility also, they may need to build more jails ;)

Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 4, 2004 7:11 UTC (Fri) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] (1 responses)

Your sacrifice would have been in vain. The moment two or more arrests happens, without any counterclaim or prospect of legal fight,... like virus authors when they get caught,... i was sayng upon that momment the commercial part of the Linux/FOSS community will colapse, because entreprises will run for cover.

And to make things worst that civil disobidience will translate in an "underground" of only a small percentage of more or less tech savy users in passioned dedication to their cause and work. It will be impossible, IMO, to convert that way the huge mass of common users, that are now in a more or less "Confort Zone" with pirated windows, that no matter the BSODs is the only OS that can run all the hardware they trow in. And with no masses of users converted to the cause of this civil disobidience movement, not even in dreams will be possible the gaining of political power to the point of forcing goverments to change the law.

You will be left in prison, forgotten , and by the time Microsoft FUD machine finishes, Linux will be nothing more than a dark thing of wirdo pirates and hackers.

Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 4, 2004 13:38 UTC (Fri) by verzonnen (guest, #9406) [Link]

I do not see it as a sacrifice, there is no cause that I am fighting for. I use linux because it suits my needs (and income) better! The problem is that it is seen as a strugle in the US against big evil corporations, I do not care if any company does, or does not want to use linux. The corporations do not care, they are interested in making money. Would you feel proud if an "enron" used your product?? The developers working for those companies will use (at least parts) open source regardles.

Sadly Linux needs these "big evil corporations" for now, because without a common enemy, the comunity will fall apart with internal squibeling. I have seen some maturity in the samba team in there statement regarding SCO's use of samba.

Linux wil not disapear in a hurry, there is to much momentum now and if the industry continues to use inferior systems that just garanties work for alot of MCSE'rs ;)