qwik, i know YOU know this free source thing from sun.com is pure PR. but the rest of the geeks here don't. i went over to the experts, slashdot and they think it is bs like I don. here's a sample, and ONLY a sample:
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How can we best let people know? (Score:5, Interesting)
by Paul Crowley (slashdot-paul@hedonism.demon.co.uk) on Friday October 01, @09:12AM EDT (#15)
(User Info) hedonism.demon.co.uk
As people here know, Sun's SCSL is a kind of "embrace and extend" for free software/open source: pretend to offer the efficiency gains, but hold back the freedom so you can still hold your customers in thrall and mess them about at a later date.
The trouble is that a lot of people are going to mistake this for a real open source release. In some ways, it's the nightmare scenario that RMS has been trying to warn ESR of, though I don't think his methods for combating it are the most effective: most people out there still think "free software" means gratis, not libre.
So, how can we spread the word? How can we let people know:
that free/open source software is all about software freedom, not just low prices and local bugfixing
that software freedom is worth having, not just for starry-eyed idealists and people who talk about troublesome ideas like ethics, but for anyone who needs their software to have a future
and that the SCSL doesn't grant it, not by a long way?
This is a pretty complex message, and getting across even the simplest ones is difficult. How shall we tackle it? |
