Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: How To Play WMV (thread drift - slaveryware)

[Steev Klimaszewski]

Andrei Slavoiu wrote:
> --- Bob Young <BYoung@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>> That's a very shallow definition of the "essence of
>> freedom," from the
>> perspective of most end users, your scenario doesn't
>> really change anything.
>> From the end users perspective s/he is still
>> dependent on someone else to
>> make the changes. I wouldn't say having a choice of
>> who to be dependent upon
>> actually qualifies as "freedom."
> Nobody needs to depend on anybody for their coding!
> Programmers are not a secret society that hold their
> ways secret! If you don't find anybody to do it for
> you, or if you don't want to pay for that, then you
> can buy a copy of "Programming for Dummies" or "Teach
> yourself C++ in 10 minutes" (note that if any of this
> books really exist, it is a simple coincidence).
> So everybody HAS the freedom. If somebody is too lazy
> to learn how to use it, it's their own fault.
>

You absolutely do have to depend on someone else for their coding -
unless you fork it, or upstream actually accepts your patch.  If you
fork it then there is a whole new ball of wax, and I am sorry but
"Programming for Dummies" and "Teach yourself C++ in 10 minutes" (just
to steal your examples) will not teach you the coding skills that you
actually need for the opensource world - as they typically are written
for.... Windows... yay... but - the only issue I have with Windows being
called slaveryware or whatever, is that means that you have absolutely
no choice whatsoever in using it - and while that may be the case where
some people work (I am lucky in that where I work they are extremely
opensource friendly, and I only have 1 machine out of 7 that actually
requires Windows be on it - gah, I keep going way off my path... ok,
lets try this again...)

Slaveryware by a very literal term, means you are being forced to use
it, and the fact that you have a choice, you CAN use Free/Open Souce
software, negates that it actually is slaveryware because no one forces
you to use it, it is personal choice.  I keep a Windows machine around
at home, but in no way do I feel like I have to have it.  It is simply
there, yes, I can scratch my own itches, and by virtue of becoming a
Gentoo dev, I have decided to help others scratch their itches too, but
that is what open source is all about.  Scratching an itch, and if you
don't have the ability to scratch your own, you ARE dependent on others
to do the scratching for you, UNTIL you have the ability to do it on
your own.  Either way, you ARE shifting who you are dependent on for the
relief from the itch.
-- 
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