On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 02:29:31PM -0700, Bruce Perens wrote:
[cut]
>
> The remaining difference between Open Source and Free Software, and IMO the
> only real difference there ever has been, is how they are promoted and who
> they are promoted to. Richard believes in an *a priori *acceptance of the
> importance of your freedom. This sells pretty well to some programmers.
> Open Source presents you with the power of Free Software and allows you to
> come to the acceptance of the importance of Software Freedom having seen
> the evidence. This sells well to other programmers and business people.
>
Hi Bruce,
thank you very much for your contribution. To be precise, the one you
stated above is not the only remaining difference. The most important
one, IMHO, is that the stated motivation of many Open Source
supporters is that the adoption of Open Source will increase the
technical quality of software, while the stated motivation of those
who call themselves Free Software enthusiasts is that the adoption of
Free Software is a fundamental step towards defining digital
citizenship, which comes with a set of digital freedoms.
It's mainly a matter of focus, and in the end there are no two camps,
but just two ways of interpreting what effectively is nowadays a
common practice of an entire community. Two narratives on the same set
of facts, which mostly overlap.
I acknowledge that the Open Source narrative has been fundamentally
central in the growth of our community, but I still believe that
insisting on freedom first is necessary, not to win more users, but to
win more enthusiastic digital citizens, and to guarantee that digital
citizenship does not become digital slavery.
Technical motivations have always been too feeble to cause
revolutions. We are not here just because systemd is technically
flawed (as we think it is). We are here because we feel that the way
in which sytemd has been forced down out throats is a violence against
the entire community. And the community side cannot be put in a
whitepaper ;)
HND
KatolaZ
--
[ ~.,_ Enzo Nicosia aka KatolaZ - GLUGCT -- Freaknet Medialab ]
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