[GLLUG] The Truth About FOSS

[Richard Houser]

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I agree.  The OSS community is more about the tried and true information
sharing model our society has used as a whole since ... well, since you
could call us a society.  Commercial software is a blip on the road map
and will eventually fail as the liberated codebase continues to grow.
Essentially, commercial software gets more and more costly over time as
complexity grows and free software starts to approach zero additional
development cost for any additional feature (it's already been written
in some form).

Stanley C. Mortel wrote:
| To be perfectly honest, the closest thing that I see to the FOSS movement
| is traditional academic publishing.  Profs. around the world work long
| hours and publish papers to the public domain (more or less) for no
| (direct) financial reimbursement.  They work in independent groups
with no
| formal leadership.  There is also a similar attitude of working for the
| "common good" rather than for profit, if only common to the rather small
| group of other professionals who would care to read, much less be able to
| understand, the technical literature.  Advancing human knowledge replaces
| advanced computer use, but the analogies seem pretty clear.  To the
extent
| that academic journals and presses hold the copyright to, and restrict
the
| use of, the articles and books they publish, they do a disservice to the
| academic/educational community, and there is wide dissapproval of such
| practices by those who write the articles.  (There is also widespread
| disregard for prohibitions of copying material for classes, etc.)
|
| Frankly, I find the FOSS community and activities thoroughly
refreshing and
| a most modern reincarnation of the spirit of community intellectual
effort
| to just get things done and share with one another.  The invention of the
| printing press did wonders for widespread communication of ideas.  The
| invention of commercial publishing, while in its own way making published
| works more widely available, has certainly created many obstacals to the
| exchange of ideas in the name of profit.  Let us hope, and to the extent
| possible ensure, that the internet and FOSS stay free and open.
|
| Just my 2 cents.
|
| Stan
|
|
| At 10:18 PM 3/21/2008 -0500, you wrote:
|> I used to think GLLUG was a bunch of right-thinking people who wanted to
|> peacefully promote the awareness and use of FOSS, and have fun doing so.
|>   Now my blinders have been removed by this adroit set of observations:
|>
|> http://www.theobjectiveobserver.com/articles/technology03.shtml
|>
|> I disavow your terrorist aims and repudiate your methods most
|> forcefully.  I see a FOSS apologist has attempted to discredit the
|> article here:
|>
|> http://www.montanalinux.org/just-a-few-clarifications.html
|>
|> but I remain unconvinced.
|>
|>                                 Chick
|>
|>
|> _______________________________________________
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|> linux-user at egr.msu.edu
|> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
|
| ****************************
| Stan Mortel
| mortel at cyber-nos.com
| ****************************
|
| _______________________________________________
| linux-user mailing list
| linux-user at egr.msu.edu
| http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user

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