Posted by: Administrator
on April 17, 2007 11:53 PM
How can OpenSource and the like get anywhere when the 'competition' can simply send it's goons around?
Q. How can Mohandas Ghandi expect to get rid of British Imperial Rule and achieve independance for India when "the competition" can just send its soldiers around?
A. Because we don't have to "beat the competition" to win. We just have to do the right thing no matter what they say or do, and outlast them.
Think about it. If OpenSource software is the best software available for a particular task, some percentage of people/business/government will be foresighted enough to use it. We should not have to mandate its use. And if come people use the software, more will come. OpenSource software has always been about doing what is right, and letting others do it too. It should not be about just another restriction of choice.
When we start restricting other people's freedom of choice because we believe it to be "in their best interests, overall" we become a nanny state, and more opressive than the original regime, because now we have self-righteous justification for our actions, not just greed.
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Re:This sucks.
Posted by: Administrator on April 17, 2007 11:53 PMQ. How can Mohandas Ghandi expect to get rid of British Imperial Rule and achieve independance for India when "the competition" can just send its soldiers around?
A. Because we don't have to "beat the competition" to win. We just have to do the right thing no matter what they say or do, and outlast them.
Think about it. If OpenSource software is the best software available for a particular task, some percentage of people/business/government will be foresighted enough to use it. We should not have to mandate its use. And if come people use the software, more will come. OpenSource software has always been about doing what is right, and letting others do it too. It should not be about just another restriction of choice.
When we start restricting other people's freedom of choice because we believe it to be "in their best interests, overall" we become a nanny state, and more opressive than the original regime, because now we have self-righteous justification for our actions, not just greed.
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