[gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: Dual Head

[Duncan]

"Mark Knecht" <markknecht@×××××.com> posted
5bdc1c8b0607130650x3cf6fc75uda0f52077548b26a@××××××××××.com, excerpted
below, on  Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:50:48 -0700:

> On 7/13/06, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net> wrote:
>> [] slaveryware [] freedomware []
>
> Must we use such charged language around here?

My choice of words is a reflection of who I am, how I define myself after
certain experiences, therefore, part of my terminology, therefore, part of
my posts. I believe the quote in my sig, and if one is subject to a
master, what does that make them, other than a slave?

Let me ask you this.  If you had been in a country where your freedom was
extremely limited and you had either spent time in prison for your beliefs
or knew  personally those that had, then had escaped/defected to a new
country and a new life of freedom, leaving your old life and many friends
and loved ones behind to start anew... knowing you could never legally go
back on pain of life imprisonment or worse, unless the regime changed and
with that came freedom...

If in your new country you appreciated your freedoms, your new life, yet
still having friends left behind in the old that you'd like to bring over
to share your joy and save them from the oppression...

That's EXACTLY how I feel about proprietaryware vs FLOSS.  It is to me
very literally /slaveryware/, an entirely different world, now rejected
and left behind for the new world of freedom software.  As with many
defectors, I had a decent life before, a full decade of familiarity with a
particular slaveryware platform, but it wasn't /free/. As with many
defectors, I left friends and loved ones behind that I'd like to see make
the move as well. As with many defectors, the old life is now lost to me,
a bad dream, before the change. I can only shudder looking back at it, a
great sacrifice, but so well worth it no words can describe!

I've had this discussion before.  Someone whose ancestors were apparently
enslaved took some offense.  He didn't understand what it meant to me, and
that I chose the words deliberately, /because/ they had the meaning they
did.  I asked him if he was willing to be imprisoned or even die for the
concept of free software if it came to that.  He wasn't, saying it's only
software.  I expect that's probably your take on things as well.  For me,
it's much more serious.  It really /is/ a struggle for freedom, and as
many fighting that struggle round the world, I've sacrificed and know I
may be called upon to sacrifice more. Would I die defending free software?
I'm not sure I can honestly say I would, at this point.  However, I *DO*
say that I believe I /should/ be willing to die for it.  After all, it
/is/ freedom we are talking here.

Thus it is with deliberate certainty I choose and use those words, doing
so in the knowledge that freedom does have a cost, asserting by my choice
of wording that I am willing to pay a cost, tho I cannot be certain if I'd
be willing to pay the ultimate cost.

OTOH, my choice of wording reflects my own journey.  I do not demand nor
expect others to be at the same point in their own, or even on the same
journey.  Slaveryware vs freedomware is what it is to /me/.  As with the
defector looking back at those he left behind, I realize they must make
and are making their own choices.

IOW, it's a personal thing.  I accept that it may not be slaveryware to
you, but to me it is, and I call it as I see it in posts I make, or I
don't make those posts.  You may of course do the same in your posts.  As
well, I've always believed in the absolute right to kill file, no reason
or notice need be given, tho it often is. Should my choice of words be
offensive enough to you, you may of course choose not to see them.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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