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Free software? You can't just give it away
Times Online ^ | February 21, 2006 | Times Online

Posted on 02/23/2006 7:31:29 AM PST by N3WBI3

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To: antiRepublicrat
Using a license to quash freedom of speech, gotta love it.

heh--yet another hammer to wield...

121 posted on 02/23/2006 2:11:39 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: N3WBI3
you have in the past posted that Linux only had a 10% share

Lie #1. I posted 10-15% percent, which is an average of 12.5%, not "only 10%" as you claimed.

when pushed for a source

Lie #2. You never pushed for a source, I provided the link to the source in the original post in question.

Note to others. If you see the other post and following thread, it was obviously a mistype since I provided the source, and I quickly admitted it was. Let that stand in stark contrast to the obvious and intended distortions posted above. Also expect poor little newbi3 to cry to his moderator friend and have this post pulled just like he did the other day when this same exact subject came up.

122 posted on 02/23/2006 2:19:34 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: antiRepublicrat
That's almost every commercial license out there

Demonstrate where any commercial software company has confiscated more code from any user than the Free Software Foundation has.

123 posted on 02/23/2006 2:26:12 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
That your dad's computer couldn't follow them. At least that's what you claimed.

No. I told you on numerous occasions the links were completely irrelevant and didn't suggest to back up anything you claimed. I, as well as others, have tried to offer a few hints that would make yourself appear at least halfway credible on these threads.

But instead of taking to heart the constructive criticism and work to improve the quality of your posts, you just simply find it more convenient to put up circular arguments that you hope stick, and failing that, you resort to insulting not only me on these threads, but other posters as well via FR's features such as the mail system.

And finally for the record, I bought the computer off of him--part of it came from birthday and Christmas money, the rest from hard-earned cash I saved up. Now I own it--and I successfully got the dual-boot I wanted.

124 posted on 02/23/2006 2:30:19 PM PST by rzeznikj at stout (This is a darkroom. Keep the door closed or you'll let all the dark out...)
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To: Golden Eagle; antiRepublicrat
Demonstrate where any commercial software company has confiscated provided more code from to any user than the Free Software Foundation has.

How's that?

125 posted on 02/23/2006 2:30:52 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Golden Eagle
Demonstrate where any commercial software company has confiscated more code from any user than the Free Software Foundation has.

Demonstrate where the FSF has. The thing about copyright infringers of GPL code is that it's much cheaper to just give up the added code than pay possibly millions in damages at court. Luckily for these copyright infringers, free software gives them that option, which so far everyone has taken. In the proprietary world they just have to pay up.

126 posted on 02/23/2006 2:35:21 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: rzeznikj at stout

No you didn't, you said the links didn't work or took you to unrelated topics. I'll be glad to point your lies out later as well and link those posts if you don't come clean now.


127 posted on 02/23/2006 2:37:04 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
That's pretty much what I said in post 124. Here, you choose to go by the letter of what I said instead of actually listening to what I said.

Your links didn't work because they didn't back up your point. They don't work when you're presenting an opposing view.

In case you don't know--irrelevant means unrelated.

How about you come clean--are you really an MS shill?

128 posted on 02/23/2006 2:41:02 PM PST by rzeznikj at stout (This is a darkroom. Keep the door closed or you'll let all the dark out...)
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To: Golden Eagle
Demonstrate...

And, please, demonstrate where any open source license (as defined and accepted by opensource.org) attempts to quash the freedom of speech of the users the way Microsoft does.

129 posted on 02/23/2006 2:42:36 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

Linux's Hit Men (Forbes)

http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/14/cz_dl_1014linksys.html?


130 posted on 02/23/2006 2:47:53 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: rzeznikj at stout

No you didn't, you said my links were taking you to unrelated topics, why don't you just admit it? That's how it came out you're just a kid who is/was using his dad's computer.

I don't work for Microsoft, that's just what these losers try to smear me with since they can't debate honestly. My position is no different than many others outside Microsoft who recognize the danger of Richard Stallman and his army of fanatics place on the US software industry.


131 posted on 02/23/2006 2:56:25 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Linux's Hit Men (Forbes)

Forbes, a magazine known for making ill-informed hit pieces on free software. But notice nobody was forced to give up source. Cisco was given the option to rip out Linux and use another OS, which they now do in their latest WRT54G router (VX Works, which they have to pay for, but runs in a smaller footprint so the routers are cheaper to manufacture, more than making up the cost).

The moral: Don't redistribute another person's copyrighted work without first gaining permission.

132 posted on 02/23/2006 2:58:14 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Golden Eagle
Again you miserably fail to listen to what I'm saying.

Second, as an Associate degree candidate, I highly resent being labelled a kid. My twelve year old brother is a kid.

Third, I didn't say you worked for MS. I asked if you were a shill. You don't have to work for MS to be a MS shill.

133 posted on 02/23/2006 3:04:27 PM PST by rzeznikj at stout (This is a darkroom. Keep the door closed or you'll let all the dark out...)
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To: antiRepublicrat

I'm not talking about rank, but whether the site shows up at all.


134 posted on 02/23/2006 3:18:32 PM PST by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: r9etb
The problem is that development and maintenance of open source code involve real costs. The Open Source model assumes that those costs will always be absorbed by good-hearted programmers, for free to everybody else.

Suppose I need an application to do something that no existing applications do. If feasible, and if the task is not too complex, I would write such an application for myself. The costs of my writing the software are borne of necessity--I need the software, so I write it.

If the software is such that other people find it useful, I have three basic options:

  1. Try to sell it
  2. Offer it free to anyone who could benefit from it
  3. Keep it to myself
Choice #1 may not be practical. Choice #2 may be. The biggest cost associated with choice #2 would be putting the software into a form others would find useful. This may or may not be a significant amount of work. And choice #3 is of course generally pretty easy.

Choice #1 may offer cashflow benefits if I invest enough startup money into it, but otherwise likely not. Choice #3 offers no particular benefit. Choice #2 doesn't offer me any direct renumeration, but may offer some other benefits, since other people may examine my code, make enhancements to it, and then give me back those enhancements.

The basic principle behind open-source software is a lot of software is developed for the use of its creators which would also have utility to other people. If someone writes a simple program and then someone else comes along and adds some enhancements, then both people can get the benefit of having an enhanced version of the program without either of them having had to write the whole thing.

135 posted on 02/23/2006 3:23:01 PM PST by supercat (Sony delenda est.)
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To: rzeznikj at stout

You're the one that's not making any sense, and should just let me and anti-R who is fully educated and experienced debate. So far, we seem to agree that Richard Stallman is a "rabid anti-capitalist" and 75+ percent of "open source" is released under his license. If you have any problems with those so far agreed to facts, take them up with him instead.


136 posted on 02/23/2006 3:23:55 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: r9etb

" It also represents an unsustainable economic idea: give something away free so that somebody else can make a buck on it. The problem is that development and maintenance of open source code involve real costs. The Open Source model assumes that those costs will always be absorbed by good-hearted programmers, for free to everybody else. Over time, however, the desire for stability within a company's code base, coupled with divergence from Open Source as companies modify Open Source for their own needs, ends up killing the model. Eventually, somebody simply grabs the Open Source, locks it down as a baseline, and starts selling their own modifications to all comers."

The point of the patent system was to allow inventors limited exclusive use of their invention to encourage innovation but then to open it to the public to improve on it. If you stymie opening the info infinitely through perversions of the patent laws intended by the Founders, you are stopping humanity from building upon prior generations' works.

At some point innovation has to be open to be improved upon. I don't understand the visceral reaction some here have to the whole idea of open source, as if it will bring the walls of capitalism tumbling down. Voluntary charity hasn't screwed the planet yet, to my knowledge.


137 posted on 02/23/2006 3:28:14 PM PST by LibertarianInExile (Freedom isn't free--no, there's a hefty f'in fee--and if you don't throw in your buck-o-5, who will?)
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To: Golden Eagle
Denial is a river in Egypt.

I'm talking about your yenta-like posting of circular arguments, manifested through contradictory posts and worthless links.

I'm not talking about RMS--but here's my two cents' worth. AFAIC, he's a raving, nutty tool. His v.2 license isn't that political. IIRC, it was written in 1991--before he completely lost it and became the dirty anti-capitalist. Therefore, the GPL v.2 license says nothing about OSS being anti-capitalist.

My rather limited knowledge of GPL v.3 is that the current draft is anti-capitalist fringe rhetoric. IMO, it'll be shunned by much of the OSS community--making it worthless except for a few programmers.

138 posted on 02/23/2006 3:36:11 PM PST by rzeznikj at stout (This is a darkroom. Keep the door closed or you'll let all the dark out...)
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To: LibertarianInExile
I don't understand the visceral reaction some here have to the whole idea of open source, as if it will bring the walls of capitalism tumbling down.

Simple, the "father" of free software and primary open source license, Stallman, claims his "ultimate goal" is to wipe proprietary software off the earth. Add to that his radical supporters who constantly twist the truth like we see on this very thread, and some serious questions and opposition naturally emerge.

139 posted on 02/23/2006 3:38:48 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: rzeznikj at stout
he's a raving, nutty tool...he completely lost it and became the dirty anti-capitalist.

Then why are you fighting with me for speaking out against him and his obvious radicals? He is the face of open source, and it's finally been admitted on this thread that as much as 80 percent of all open source software uses his licences. Don't waste your breath claiming none of that matters.

140 posted on 02/23/2006 3:53:31 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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