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Argh Me Hearties, It's All About Freedom and Software.
With my new role as President of Linux Users of Victoria, I attended the two Richard Stallman talks this week at the University of Melbourne and RMIT distributing leaflets for LUV and Software Freedom Day, both attended by around four hundred people each. In the former presentation, Stallman discussed the core principles in the free software movement and in the second presentation he discussed more the role of copyrights in history and why their current misuse is damaging. In both presentations Stallman was very persuasive, arguing in a manner not unlike Benjamin Franklin - that is you surrender a freedom for convenience, you'll end up with neither. Essentially he is arguing that software is not just about functionality, but also has a moral component and the rights which are allocated to software comes with serious long-term effects. Stallman also gave a very good argument on why Linux, whilst capturing the public imagination, is really GNU Linux, that is, the Linux kernel plus the GNU utilities (one could also refer to Android Linux and GNU Hurd).
Yesterday was Softare Freedom Day which was hosted at the State Library in Melbourne. With the usual combination of distributions, local organisations, commercial groups and a great collection of talks and events. Yes, IT's favourite federal member of parliament, Senator Kate Lundy, was there as well. I was particularly taken by the gaming area and received a thorough introduction to Glest, a very attractive Age of Empires-like game which I had hitherto completely missed. Finally, to end a very strange week, today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, which perhaps not so strangely, does have a strong crossover with the free software movement. Maybe it's something about "piracy"?
Yesterday was Softare Freedom Day which was hosted at the State Library in Melbourne. With the usual combination of distributions, local organisations, commercial groups and a great collection of talks and events. Yes, IT's favourite federal member of parliament, Senator Kate Lundy, was there as well. I was particularly taken by the gaming area and received a thorough introduction to Glest, a very attractive Age of Empires-like game which I had hitherto completely missed. Finally, to end a very strange week, today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, which perhaps not so strangely, does have a strong crossover with the free software movement. Maybe it's something about "piracy"?
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That's fucking crap.
> Yo.
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By all means, disagree. But it's much more useful and interesting for us all if you provide reasons why.
Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
My name is Andrew, I am of the generation that cut it's teeth on gpl/bsd licensed code. In regrades to gpl code and commerce; I have learned from it, laughed at it, cried and argued over it, built a business around it and most importantly improved it ... these then are my aims. Now in my thirties I am not done improving it or creating new things from it and giving it back to people that can do the same. Oh yeah I'm also living quite well on my six figure income, not always derived from writing software but certainly related to my ability to solve complex problems by hacking code. Skills greatly enhanced in no small part by being able to freely converse with people that write code designed to be shared on systems that are designed to be free.
Re: Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
Re: Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
Are you really arguing that the GNU/BSD licenses have been a problem for the programmers of, let's see, Livejournal and Dreamwidth. WordPress. MySQL. OpenSSH. OpenOffice.. Linux/BSD? Do you seriously think they would have fared better with a proprietary license?
Re: Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
Ah, Lev. I'm not from the Peter Mackay school of pedantry.
But you, of all people, must know and realise that you can't qualify a post like that as proof of anything. It's like asking about poverty in rural and regional Australia, someone turning around and saying "I'm a mining superviser in Karratha and I'm doing just fine thanks!" and declaring they're all well paid.
Re: Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
One of the interesting points that imajica raises is that the availability and contribution to FOSS also enhances one's programming ability, through the existing examples and by thinking of a better way to do task (a).
Re: Free Enterprise, please excuse the vinegar.
Leave it behind.
Shut up and hack.
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I'm reading what zey has written and there is a rationale behind those statements.
What hope of elaboration or an illuminating link for someone who has yet to form an opinion on this topic?
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Thanks.