[ox] Small debate w/ RMS
- From: Stefan Meretz <stefan.meretz hbv.org>
- Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 15:30:11 +0000
Hi oekonuxis,
this mail, I'll write in english due to cc:ing it to Richard Stallman
(RMS).
As I informed you, I asked RMS whether it is possible for him to
participate at a BOF session on LT2K. We faced a slot on sunday, 2 pm,
however, due to ongoing schedule changes by conference organizing
members, we have to be a little bit flexible. As a topic I proposed the
title of Stefan Mn's talk: "GNU/Linux - a milestone on the way to GPL
society".
Beside the technical arrangement of the session, we came into a
discussion about free software. I'd like to forward the following part
with the ok from RMS (I start there describing the content of my talk):
+---------------8<--------------------+
I discuss differences in licenses and I talk about development
models for free software focussing the fact, that free software
is not driven by making money and has a lot to do with "self
development" (I don't know if this makes sense in english, in
german I use "Selbstentfaltung" for that).
It is true that the Free Software Movement gives first priority
to freedom and community, not to profit. However, we are not
against profit as a secondary goal. The more people can make
money working on free software, the better--as long as freedom
is not compromised in the process.
Maybe, that is my point of critique. I think, in short, that
freedom and profit is not compatible.
I think that is too strong. Some ways of making profit are
compatible with a sufficient level of freedom.
When you say, "we are not against profit as a second goal",
what is the difference then compared to the OSS adherends?
The OSS people do not all have identical views, so we should not
speak about all of them as a unit. We have to distinguish different
views among them.
That they give profit the first priority?
Some of them give profit the first priority. For example,
Eric Raymond seems to say that.
+---------------8<--------------------+
I have a lot of questions and comments, but I won't do this on pm-basis
any further. I think, it is interesting in general. Maybe we can
continue this on list basis or on the BOF session at LT.
Ciao,
Stefan
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