On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 7:34 AM, Monty J. Harder mjharder@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 3:36 PM, Justin Dugger jldugger@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 3:38 AM, Luke Dashjr luke@dashjr.org wrote:
This is completely irrelevant to anyone who doesn't run proprietary software, which is the entire point of GNU/Linux.
No, the point is to write and run quality software; open source is the necessary condition to achieve those goals.
The entire point of "GNU" and "Free Software" is to be ABLE to run only non-proprietary software if one chooses. For those of a different ideological orientation, the above paragraph applies. It is a similar disagreement to the one Objectivists have with Libertarians.
You are neglecting the "Linux" portion of "GNU/Linux" quoted from the grandparent. Torvalds has consistently been at odds with the FSF, who view presently view liberated software as a moral objective itself rather than a means to an end -- fixing bugs. Even Stallman's original cause was to fix a bug in a printer, and he still fights to preserve the right for people to fix bugs in products they own. In fact, Stallman had to go in and add "freedom of use" later to his free software definition, because his goal is a place where programmers can Write and Fix free software, not merely Use it.
Justin Dugger