all this time i never understood what FSF was about really.
in some ways, the guy is right. annoyingly, stubbornly, horribly-marketedly right.
to get people to really understand how freedom to modify software is important the way freedom of speech is important (i.e., it just saves time for everyone in the long run. take the gates-has-done-more-good-for-kids-in-africa argument. the counter argument is that those kids wouldn't have malaria if something more akin to the freedom to modify software were believed by more people. i.e., we did not excuse exploitation and we safeguarded against it heavily. against de beers. against remnants of colonial governments. against rebel armies. against anyone who takes advantage of other people.) -- anyway, to get people to see why it's important (and it took me -- what -- two decades of interaction with software as a user and now a developer?) -- this may sound lame, but i think there is a great character out there that could be part of some novel or screenplay.
it would be like sue sylvester as a team leader / tech lead. this incredibly uncompromising hardass who for some reason insists on free software. total jerk to new hires. rejects code left and right, almost arbitrarily (i'm reminded of the whole xemacs situation, but i suppose that's different.)
but then one day you'd have the sue sylvester's sister episode or whatever. maybe some unexpected vulnerable conversation with our once brow-beaten, junior-developer protagonist. and the glorious recognition scene would hit you and you'd realize -- f-, in some ways that dude is right.
in some ways, the guy is right. annoyingly, stubbornly, horribly-marketedly right.
to get people to really understand how freedom to modify software is important the way freedom of speech is important (i.e., it just saves time for everyone in the long run. take the gates-has-done-more-good-for-kids-in-africa argument. the counter argument is that those kids wouldn't have malaria if something more akin to the freedom to modify software were believed by more people. i.e., we did not excuse exploitation and we safeguarded against it heavily. against de beers. against remnants of colonial governments. against rebel armies. against anyone who takes advantage of other people.) -- anyway, to get people to see why it's important (and it took me -- what -- two decades of interaction with software as a user and now a developer?) -- this may sound lame, but i think there is a great character out there that could be part of some novel or screenplay.
it would be like sue sylvester as a team leader / tech lead. this incredibly uncompromising hardass who for some reason insists on free software. total jerk to new hires. rejects code left and right, almost arbitrarily (i'm reminded of the whole xemacs situation, but i suppose that's different.)
but then one day you'd have the sue sylvester's sister episode or whatever. maybe some unexpected vulnerable conversation with our once brow-beaten, junior-developer protagonist. and the glorious recognition scene would hit you and you'd realize -- f-, in some ways that dude is right.