[wp-pro] WordPress Coolie

[Hans van Hoffen]

Please find a different platform for this discussion and let's go back to
the usual requests / posts.

 

Thanks,

 

Hans

 

  _____  

From: wp-pro-bounces at lists.automattic.com
[mailto:wp-pro-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Angsuman
Chakraborty
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 9:17 PM
To: philip reed; wp-pro at lists.automattic.com
Subject: RE: [wp-pro] WordPress Coolie

 

> Either that's a misunderstanding of Stallman, falling into the classic
beer/speech fallacy, or I grossly misunderstand Stallman.

> I've always assumed that one reason (though not the only reason) people
are willing to donate their coding on contemporary open-source projects is
precisely BECAUSE there's an aftermarket for services.
> Kill the services market and open-source coding just isn't as attractive.

Almost immediately after I pressed the send button, I realized the potential
for debate and maybe flame too. I do not want to use this list for that.
However feel free to communicate with me directly on this issue.

Suffice it to say that you should read the recent interview of Dr. Stallman:
http://kerneltrap.org/node/4484

Some interesting excerpts:
"Any development of non-free software is harmful and unfortunate, whether it
uses GNU tools or other tools."

JA: How do you react to the opinion that non-free software is justified as a
means for raising dollars that can then be put into the development of
completely new software, money that otherwise may not have been available,
and thus creating software that may have never been developed?

Richard Stallman: This is no justification at all. A non-free program
systematically denies the users the freedom to cooperate; it is the basis of
an antisocial scheme to dominate people. The program is available lawfully
only to those who will surrender their freedom. That's not a contribution to
society, it's a social problem. It is better to develop no software than to
develop non-free software.

JA: What about the programmers...

Richard Stallman: What about them? The programmers writing non-free
software? They are doing something antisocial. They should get some other
job.

He simply doesn't care about programmers making a honest living. Not
everyone is born with a silver spoon.
As far as I am concerned he is a nutcase (flame 2>&1 > /dev/null), but then
what do I know?

Cheers,
Angsuman


-----Original Message-----
From: wp-pro-bounces at lists.automattic.com
[mailto:wp-pro-bounces at lists.automattic.com]On Behalf Of philip reed
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:22 AM
To: wp-pro at lists.automattic.com
Subject: Re: [wp-pro] WordPress Coolie
Importance: Low


On 1/24/07, Angsuman Chakraborty <angsuman at taragana.com> wrote:
> And then there are people whose
> mindset is to abhor anything non-free, in Richard Stallmanish ways. They
> believe everything should be free, conveniently forgetting that too should
> be working in their day-jobs for free, without expecting any remuneration
> whatsoever.

Either that's a misunderstanding of Stallman, falling into the classic
beer/speech fallacy, or I grossly misunderstand Stallman.

I've always assumed that one reason (though not the only reason)
people are willing to donate their coding on contemporary open-source
projects is precisely BECAUSE there's an aftermarket for services.
Kill the services market and open-source coding just isn't as
attractive.

Regards,

Philip
--
Philip Reed, Web developer

http://philipreedtech.com

Web.  Made simple.
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